The Demon and the Ghost
by NHunter
Summary: ATTENTION: this story is on an INDEFINITE hiatus. Will be continued sometime later, when I have inspiration to do that.
1. prologue: Shattered lives

Hello, everyone! I finally decided to start this story - I had the idea for months and couldn't contain it anymore. =)

**Title**: The Demon and the Ghost**  
Author**: NHunter aka N.H. aka 夜狩猟家 aka 灰色天使**  
Genre**: General, Adventure, Romance later**  
Rating**: M = NC-17**  
Characters**: almost everyone from manga and some OC's**  
Warnings**: AU, OOC, incest with lemons in the future  
**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own Naruto or its characters

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

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Special thanks to **Mister Fummeln **for beta-reading this chapter

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**The Demon and the Ghost****  
p****rologue: Shattered lives**

"Congratulations, Kushina-sama, you have a wonderful boy." A nurse said, holding newborn boy in her hands. ...Sometimes, being 'honorable lady Kushina' wasn't that bad after all, the new mother thought. This way she could have had two nurses to help her with giving birth, even if the hospital was full with wounded shinobi who fought Kyuubi... Speaking of the Kyuubi... The hospital building shook as a wave of destruction passed just a couple dozens of meters from it. Then it all was quiet for several seconds, before in flash of golden light Yondaime Hokage appeared in the room.

"I'm very sorry, Kushina-chan, but looks like I don't have any other option... I need to seal the demon away to save the village..." The man spoke in a shaky voice.

"But he is YOUR son!" Kushina yelled back. "You're the Hokage!.." She was interrupted.

"That's why. If Hokage can't make such a sacrifice... then how can he ask someone else to make it? And he will still have you." The Yondaime said with some tears appearing in his eyes. There was a short pause, which one of the nurses decided to use to speak up.

* * *

"Kushina-sama, your second child may be born any minute..."

"Kushina-chan, can I have Naruto?" The Hokage asked.

"NO!" If there was anything in the world, the Yellow Flash of the Leaf was afraid of, it was his wife. But, hell, when entire village was at the stake, he had to get past this fear too...

"Just make sure, that our son will be a happy boy." With these words he flash-stepped to the nurse and took the boy in question from her hands. A moment later, he was gone in a flash of golden light.

"Curse you, Minato! If you do something to my boy, I will personally revive you, so that I can kill you myself!" Yelled an angry Kushina.

"You need to stay calm, honorable lady Kushi-..." The nurse couldn't finish as a beam of red yoki passed though the building, evaporating everything in its way and leaving poisonous red mist of yoki in its wake. The other nurse was a bit more lucky as the demon's attack just took her left arm. The building - or whatever was left from it - shook once again. This time several beams couldn't stand the stress and collapsed. Unfortunately, one of these beams fell onto Kushina, killing her instantly. The nurse was shocked; the honorable lady Kushina was dead, died in front of her eyes and she couldn't do anything to save her... Then the woman remembered, the Honorable Lady had second child, surprisingly, a girl who had yet to be born. Ignoring white-hot pain from her burned away arm, the nurse went to Kushina's body, hoping to at least save the daughter of honorable lady Kushina...

**~/ *** \~  
**

Tsunade looked at the battlefield. Everywhere she could see nothing but destruction. Thankfully, Minato was able to seal the Kyuubi into his newborn son before the demon could enter Konoha and erase it from the face of the Earth. The female Sannin went to where toad boss Gamabunta left just several seconds ago, when the fight was over. On the ground there was dead body of Yondaime Hokage, still holding little Naruto to his chest protectively. Tsunade kneeled and took the baby from Minato's arms. The child was sleeping, most likely, completely exhausted by the sealing he went through... While Tsunade herself wasn't fuuinjutsu master, she still knew some basic things about this art. The seal on Naruto's stomach was far too complex for her to even understand what it does, but at least she could tell that it was placed correctly. The Kyuubi was sealed.

"How is he?" Asked an aged man in dark-gray battle robes.

"If the fools in the council won't do anything to him, he should be fine. Minato truly was a genius,  
Sensei."

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage in the past, sighed.

"I think, you should bring our little hero to the hospital. It's not safe for him to remain here." Tsunade nodded and sped towards where Konoha hospital was... Sarutobi turned to look at where the beast was just before his successor sealed it. Between enormous pawprints he saw a dried corpse. He came closer to examine it, as it didn't look like any of the shinobi who died in the battle. It was hard to tell, but the corpse was feminine and belonged to rather young woman, maybe even a teen. Whoever she was, she died years ago and was kept as this due to Kyuubi's yoki.

'_So those weren't legends after all..._' Old man thought. '_the__Rikudou Sennin existed and he did defeat the Juubi, splitting its yoki in nine parts, thus creating the Bijuu. Looks like soulless __youki__ had to anchor itself to a living body and a soul to exist in this world, though..._' Then another thought visited Sarutobi's head. '_But Konoha is at a brink of destruction... We have to think about the survival of the village now, not about the origin of the Bijuu..._' Sighing again, the old man started walking back into the village...

**~/ *** \~  
**

Leaving little Naruto in the part of hospital that survived the attack of Kyuubi, with a nurse she could trust, Tsunade walked to the ruins. Red poisonous mist of Kyuubi's youki still hadn't dissipated so it was dangerous to stay outside... The wing of hospital where the maternity department was was completely demolished and all she could hear from the ruins was a lonely cry of a newborn baby. Speeding to the source of the sound, the Sannin found a baby girl lying on the stone debris between two fallen beams, surrounded by dust and ashes, like they were attracted to her. Picking this little girl up, Tsunade was surprised to find out, that the child was in fine health. Though her hair was that of an unusual white color and had red tint to it. The girl stopped crying and opened her eyes, looking at Tsunade, who noted that the color of girl's iris too were unusual – it was blue closer to pupils and turning purple further from it.

"You are such lucky girl, you know?" The Sannin asked. "Who was your mother?" Of course, she got no answer... She sighed "Another orphan... How shall we name you?.." A pause. "Oh, I know. Your name shall be Sachiko." And with this Tsunade hastily walked towards still standing part of the hospital...

**~/ *** \~  
**

Minato Namikaze was in the world of darkness. It surrounded him completely, leaving no way out... So, this was the stomach of Shinigami-sama. But something wasn't right. The jutsu he used should have brought not only him there, but the one he used it on too. But where in the hell was Kyuubi's soul? Deciding that he had nothing better to do, Minato decided to explore the darkness...

He had no idea, for how long he was walking... Maybe just several minutes, maybe months, but his eyes finally caught something that wasn't darkness. Running after it, Minato soon found petite brunette in ceremonial clothes hiding in the corner. Was she the Kyuubi?

"W-Who are you? W-Where am I?" She asked fearfully, still trying to hide from him. Was she the Kyuubi? Sighing, he decided to answer.

"My name is Minato Namikaze and we are in the stomach of the God of death." The girl paled and seemed to become even smaller than she was before. No this wasn't the Kyuubi? But then, what was she doing there? Minato had no answers to these questions.

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**Read and Review**!

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As this is actually my SIXTH project that is epic story, **updates with be irregular and rather rare**. Still, first chapter will be ASAP.


	2. Demon meets Ghost

Here we go, first chapter of the story:

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Special thanks to **Mister Fummeln** for beta-reading this chapter.

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**Chapter 1: Demon meets ghost**

Seven year old Naruto was walking through one of the less crowded streets in the poorest area of Konoha. Through years of experience the little boy found out that here he was treated a little better, than anywhere else in the village. Maybe just because everyone had enough problems to deal with without him to worry about? Not that Naruto really cared – he was relatively safe walking in the daylight here, and it was enough for him. Suddenly his heightened senses picked an ANBU approaching. Moments later a purple-haired woman with cat mask on her face landed in front of him. Blond boy relaxed a bit; 'Cat' was assigned to watch over him, so he was in no immediate danger.

"Hokage-sama wishes to speak with you, Naruto-kun." At his nod, Cat took his small hand and they disappeared from the street in a swirl of wind and leaves. They reappeared right in the Hokage's office. Sarutobi looked at his guests from behind the pile of paperwork and set aside the document he was reading.

"What dij'ya want to talk 'bout, Old man?" Naruto asked as soon as Cat disappeared.

"This is something very important. Actually, it is an S-rank secret of the village." Hokage paused for a moment, ignoring the boy's yell about his own S-rank secret. "Originally I wanted to tell you this when you became Chuunin or when you turned sixteen. But now I see that it was my mistake and it caused you much more pain than it saved you from."

"what'z zat, Old man? What'z my S-rank secret?" Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed. This boy was a ball of energy, though, with what he contained, it wasn't a real surprise...

"This is a rather long story, Naruto... What do you know about the Kyuubi?" The blonde looked surprised by Hokage's question.

"Umm... It came seven years ago at my birthday... and... Umm... Yondaime fought it and killed it!" Sarutobi nodded.

"You are almost correct, my boy. The Kyuubi did attack our village for unknown reasons seven years ago on October tenth, and our Yondaime Hokage did battle with it and defeated it. But what only few know, is that the Kyuubi was a giant mass of conscious energy and thus impossible to kill..."

"But if the Yondaime didn't kill it, where iz it then?" Naruto asked, interrupting the Hokage's story.

"Yes, he couldn't kill it, so he did second best thing; he sealed it away..." Sarutobi paused for a moment before continuing "He sealed the demon into the newborn baby." Naruto looked confused. Then it hit him, all those glares and looks of hatred people gave him, all those names he was called... all of that had a reason.

"He sii... sealed it in I?" The Hokage nodded cautiously. "Am I the Kyuubi then?" Sarutobi immediately frowned, killing intent radiating from him in almost visible waves.

"Who told you that?" Then he saw poor Naruto shaking in fear, but, surprisingly, still standing. He stopped releasing his KI. "Sorry, Naruto, I didn't want to scare you. I'm not angry at you at all... To answer your question: are water in a glass, and the glass itself the same thing?" The boy shook his head. "You are right, they are not. Now just think that you are the glass and the Kyuubi is water in it. Are you the Kyuubi?"

"N-No?" Naruto answered uncertainly

"You are not, my boy, you simply contain the beast. You protect this village with every moment of your life. Unfortunately, only a few can see this." Sarutobi paused for a moment before continuing. "Unfortunately, people are so caught in their hate towards the Kyuubi, that they don't want to even try to see you, instead they only see the beast you contain. They are fools." Naruto thought for several seconds. "So I did nothing wrong to zem, Old man?" Hokage nodded.

"Yes, Naruto, you did nothing wrong... I wish I could do more, but even a Hokage can't change hearts." There was a rather long pause. "Naruto, before you go, I want to talk about what you learned today. This is a S-rank secret that is punishable by death. Only our current Hokage and you can tell it to others without punishment, but if I were you I wouldn't tell it everyone I come across. The Kyuubi's power is unimaginable... Do you want someone evil to use it against Konoha?" Naruto shook his head.

"Naruto I don't order you not to tell anyone about your... status, but try to keep it only to those you trust with your life." The boy nodded. "Good. Now, how about I treat you ramen?"

"YES! Thank you, Old man!" Naruto shouted.

**~/ *** \~**

Naruto was walking home alone. Of course, he would prefer to stay with the Old man, but the Hokage had a lot of work to do... Plus it was hard to call the place where he lived home. It was really just a big space – something about two times three times two meters – in the ventilation of one of the bigger houses in the area. It had electrical cables so Naruto managed to get himself a working lamp and a kettle even, though he still needed to go the nearby river to get some water or to wash his things or to bathe.

Naruto's senses quickly alerted him to someone in the shadows, who was potentially dangerous. And several seconds later he was forced to duck. A rather large stone flew through the space his head had occupied moment ago. Naruto continued walking, no more stones flying his way,but now he was walking closer to the buildings. Later his senses again picked up the same someone walking after him in the shadows. And something snapped inside of him, now he knew that he had done nothing to deserve this treatment, why does he have to put up with it? He stopped just at the corner of the building and waited. Soon enough small figure of someone of his age appeared, waiting for him with a stone in hands. Mastering all his speed, Naruto jumped at the figure, pinning the figure's hands to the wall with his. To his surprise, this figure was a girl with almost white, if you didn't count the red tinted, unruly hair and bluish-purple eyes.

"Why are you throwing stones at me!" Naruto roared, looking straight into her eyes.

"They say it is a good thing!" The girl yelled at him, struggling to free herself from him. Blond container frowned, still looking into her eyes.

"Iz it good to throw stones at humans?" He asked angrily, not knowing that his pupils became a little slitted.

"You are not human! YOU ARE A DEMON! The girl cried loudly. Surprisingly, and luckily for Naruto, no one paid attention to them.

"Hokage-Jiji said I'm not! I'm just container!" Naruto yelled back. Only a moment later his mind caught the fact that he let out his S-rank secret to a random girl. But he didn't care right now.

"YOU ARE A DEMON!" The girl yelled again.

"NO I AM NOT!" He yelled back. "I'm just a container! Like glass for water! I AM NOT A DEMON!" And now his words planted a seed of doubt into the girl's mind.

"Like a glass for water?" She asked, letting the stone fall from her hand.

"Like a glass for water." Naruto confirmed. "How did the old man said it?.. Something like zis... Iz water the same with a glass?" The girl shook her head. "Then, am I ze same with as the demon I contain?" There was an uneasy pause, before she answered, lowering her head.

"...No." Another, but shorter pause. "Sorry..." Naruto waited for a second before letting her go. As soon as she was free, she ran away... The Kyuubi container shrugged and continued walking 'home'...

**~/ *** \~  
**

"This is the academy. They will teach you how to be ninja here." Sarutobi said, walking little Naruto there. "Are you ready to study hard?"

"Yes! And I will be an awesome ninja!" Naruto shouted happily.

"Good. You still want to take my hat from me?" The Kyuubi container nodded eagerly. "Then you better become good shinobi soon." The Hokage walked him into one of the classrooms and as soon as Naruto picked a seat near the back of the class, he left the room. '_I hope, you will be treated better here..._' And then the Sandaime Hokage shunshin'ed to his office to continue his battle with piles of paperwork.

* * *

Naruto watched the other kids arrive. Some were accompanied by their parents, other – by their brothers and sisters. Some walked into the classroom alone. Suddenly, Naruto's eyes picked in the dappled crowd of kids the very same white-haired girl that attacked him several month ago. She scanned the class for empty seats and for a moment her eyes met with Naruto's. She walked towards three-seat empty area around the blond container and sat one seat from him.

"C-Can I seat here?" She asked.

"Of course!" The blond boy replied. "You may already know it, but I am Naruto Uzumaki."

"I'm Sachiko. Just Sachiko." The girl introduced herself. They were quiet for several minutes...

"Do you want to be my friend?" Naruto asked finally. Sachiko looked at him and nodded.

"Why not?" The blond boy smiled happily.

"Thank you! You're my first friend!"

"First friend?" The girl asked him in disbelief. "What about other kids?"

"Their parents never let me come close enough to them." Naruto replied quietly.

"And?.." She was about to ask another question, but he continued.

"...I was kicked out of the orphanage when I was four and they too drive me away every time they see me..." Sachiko looked away.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault...

Their dialogue was interrupted by the appearance of a teacher. It was white-haired Chuunin with not-so-kind expression on his face. "Shut up, gakis!" He barked. When the classroom was finally quiet, he continued. "Welcome to the shinobi academy of the Hidden Leaf village. My name is Touji Mizuki, but you should call me Mizuki-sensei. Is that clear?" Everybody nodded. "I don't hear you. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!" Children shouted.

"Good. Now, let's see who do we have here..." And 'Mizuki-sensei' started going through the list of student. "...And finally, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Here." Said dark-haired boy in an indifferent tone. Mizuki rolled the scroll back.

"Let's start our first lesson..." He noted that Sachiko raised her hand.

"What do you want?"

"Sorry, Sensei, but you haven't called Naruto's name." Mizuki narrowed his eyes and looked at the Kyuubi jinchuuriki.

"Oh, and the demon is here too? Thank you, I almost missed this hell-spawn in my class, but unfortunately Hokage have grown senile I can't kick it out. Don't let the demon bother you." He spat out.

"B-But?.." Sachiko wanted to say something to defend her new friend, but found that she couldn't do it under Mizuki's glare.

"Are you demon lover too? Listen here, girl, if you ever speak even one word to it, if you even think about helping it in any way, I will throw you out of the academy faster than you can say 'ninja'. Is that clear?" Sachiko nodded, clearly afraid of him. "Same goes for everyone else." Naruto let his head fell onto the table, tears running from his eyes... Suddenly a kunai hit the table mere millimeters from his head. Naruto looked up at Mizuki. "And, you, demon, if I ever hear even one sound from you, you are DEAD." Naruto too nodded. "Now, that the problem was solved, let's start our first lesson..."

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It was lunch break at the academy and Naruto was crying in the dark corner he found on the roof. He was hungry and scared... this definitely wasn't what he imagined shinobi life to be. His senses again picked something big flying in his direction. Naruto opened his eyes and saw that it was an apple. Catching it in the air, he saw that it was thrown by Sachiko. He almost got angry at the girl, when she nodded at the apple. Looking closely, Naruto saw, that she carved words "can I still be you friend?" into the fruit. He smiled at her and then looked down at the apple to make sure that it was real. It was. But when looked up again, Sachiko was gone..

**~/ *** \~  
**

Minato looked at his new lover. He still was afraid that Kushina will find out this. But he was already dead, so at least she won't be able to kill him, will she?

"Another round, Minato-kun?" Asked Mikoshi. The ex-Yondaime Hokage nodded, and the girl positioned herself over his tool.

"**STOP FUCKING FUCK IN MY STOMACH!**" Suddenly a loud voice boomed through the darkness. Minato looked up.

"SHUT UP, DEAD BONES!" He yelled back at Shinigami, before turning back to his lover. "So, Mikoshi-chan, where were we?"

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That's all folks!** Read and Review**! Flames welcomed... as long as you explain why you are flaming.


	3. Academy days

Second chapter of the story is here!

*** review response**:  
**Liger01**, I think that it's up to those, who are consumed by the Shinigami, whether they fight in its stomach or do something else. And no, dead ones will stay dead in this story.  
**ApexPredator**, read and find out XP  
**OverLordRevan**, academy lasts five years in this story: they start it when they are 7 and the finals are when they are 12. Minato will have threesome (no lemons there, sorry). And no, do you really think that with all this paperwork poor old Sarutobi-sama has more than several minutes a day to watch over Naruto?  
**Wyrtha**, thank you!

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

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**chapter 2: Academy days**

After the academy day finished, Naruto followed Sachiko and when he was sure, that they were pretty much alone, he showed herself, scaring the girl a bit in the process.

"Why do you wish to be friends with me even if our _sensei_ said no to?" He asked. White-haired girl looked into his eyes, before answering his question.

"You seem to be nicer than he, so why not?" Naruto bowed to her slightly.

"Thank you, Sachiko-chan." She smiled.

"Do you know nice secluded clearing where we can train? Somewhere where it won't be easy to find us?" Sachiko asked. "If we want to be good shinobi, we will need to train a lot." She added. Naruto though for some time.

"No, but I'll go look for it today." The girl nodded.

"Then, until tomorrow."

"Bye." And Naruto ran towards his 'home' to drop his school things there and start looking for his and Sachiko's secret training ground.

* * *

As months went by, Sachiko was teaching her friend what Mizuki didn't bother to teach him in the academy. But Naruto was clever enough not to reveal this secret training sessions with her by getting good marks. They also sparred with each other often, thus working on their fighting styles. Naruto was a juggernaut, rather slow, though he could dodge almost any attack if needed, very strong, with incredible stamina and really hard to knock out. Sachiko, on the other hand, relied more on her natural agility and speed, preferring to use her opponents strength against him.

They found out that Sachiko had large amounts of chakra, nearly chuunin level by the second academy year. Naruto himself had reserves that could only be described as monstrous. This meant that they both needed to do chakra-controlling exercises to be able to perform low level jutsu that were required to pass the finals of the academy.

Also, both kids became really good at stealth. This, coupled with her white hair, pale skin – she almost always was either inside a building or in the shadows – and white clothes earned Sachiko a nickname 'Konoha no gen'ei' or 'the ghost of Hidden Leaf'.

Sometime during their third year at academy, when they were ten, Sachiko discovered her ability to control dust around her. After some research, mostly carried by Naruto at the main village library during nights, they found out that Sandaime Tsuchikage had similar abilities, which, in his case, were a manifestation of a jinton bloodline. As Sachiko's parents were unknown, kids decided that she too may have this bloodline and decided to keep it in secret for the time being...

*******

Eleven years old Naruto was sure he was sleeping in his 'home', but his dream was really strange. He was in something resembling a labyrinth made of dark dirty corridors with muddy water on the floor that reached his knees. On the walls there were pipes. Some were colored blue, others – red, but they all looked almost the same because of the mold that grew on them. Labyrinth had lots of the rooms, each had a ball of dark glass in it. Each time Naruto touched the ball, he found himself in some other world. Some of these worlds were definitely his memories, while other... Naruto had never rode on a head of giant sword wielding toad while facing Kyuubi. Or had he? Continuing the exploration of the labyrinth, blond boy came to the giant chamber. On the first sight it seemed to be empty, but as he entered it, Naruto found out that it was much bigger than he though. And in the chamber, unseen from the doorway, there was a giant shapeless mass of solid-looking red energy behind green from the accrued mold glass. As he approached the glass cautiously, the energy started glowing in an unfriendly way and releasing some killing intent.

"What is this?" Naruto wondered aloud. He, of course, got no response. Other than a spike in KI from this mass of energy. The boy did a step back and studied the room closely. First, he noticed carved kanji for 'seal' on the glass. Next, there were pipes that went from inside of this glass cage and to the walls and out of the chamber. Naruto wanted to study this place more, but was brought back to the reality by a hell-spawn device named alarm clock.

* * *

After another hellish day at the academy under Mizuki-_sensei_ passed, Naruto met with Sachiko at their secret training ground.

"You know, today I had a very strange dream." He said after his friend explained him today's lessons. Sachiko looked questioningly at him.

"Like what?" Naruto though for a second about how to tell her about it. Finally, he answered:

"I was in a giant sewer-like labyrinth. I had a lot of rooms with glass balls. Some of these balls contained my memories. Other – I don't know, but what I saw was way too strange to be a memory of mine." Sachiko was about to say something, but saw that he hadn't finished, so she let him continue. "And finally there was a chamber with a lot of red evil energy behind glass with a kanji 'seal' on it." The girl didn't know what to say about it.

"Maybe you should ask Hokage-sama about it?" Naruto nodded, agreeing with her. "But if I were to guess, it might have something to do with you containing Kyuubi."

"But shouldn't Kyuubi be a giant fox with nine tails?" Blond demon container shouted.

"Who knows? But it is said that bijuu are nothing but a conscious mass of yoki, so why can't it have different forms?" Naruto had to agree that Sachiko had a point here. "But, really, you should ask Hokage-sama about it, even if I'm your friend, I'm still just an academy student."

"OK, I will ask him tomorrow." Naruto took his taijutsu stance. "But let's spar now. I will definitely win today!" White-haired girl only smirked, taking her own stance.

"Oh, don't be so sure!"

*******

On october ten of the last academy year Sachiko walked into the classroom with two new stylets attached to her belt. Many students noticed it right away, and several girls who liked gossiping decided to find out where she got them from.

"It's a birthday present a friend of mine gave me." Sachiko said coldly. Why everyone had to know where she got them from. In her mind, she replayed events of her and Naruto's yesterday's 'training' when the boy presented this weapons to her. She never got it out of him, how he got the stylets, but she didn't really care, of course, as long as they weren't stolen, but Naruto said they weren't and she believed him.

"You have a friend?" Pink-haired banshee named Haruno Sakura screeched. "You don't even want to be with Sasuke-sama, let alone have a friend here. And these blades are definitely a present from a boy. I want to know, who may be better that my Sasuke-sama." Sakura spent next minute or so, arguing with other Sasuke's fangirls about who will win his heart. "So, who is he?"

"Why should I tell you?" Sachiko replied in the same cold tone.

"Because... Because we tell you to do so!" Sakura said. White-haired girl was thinking how to tell the other girls to get lost in a way that they will understand, but was saved by Mizuki, who decided to start the lesson.

* * *

Later, when the class was out for the taijutsu practice, Sasuke approached Sachiko.

"What do you want?" The girls asked him in an unfriendly way.

"I know your little secret." Uchiha boy said. "Yesterday I saw you fighting with the demon, and you weren't faring very well. He is the deadlast. Are you this weak, second top kunoichi of the class?"

"You want me to kick your ass?" Sachiko responded, desperately trying to keep her cool.

"Like you stand a chance against Uchiha." Sasuke said, trying to intimidate her.

"We will see." The girl replied angrily. Then she called Mizuki. "Sensei, I want to fight Sasuke Uchiha."

"Are you sure?" White-haired chuunin asked. "Maybe you should fight someone weaker?"

"No. I want to fight him." Sachiko said in a certain voice. Mizuki shrugged.

"As you wish. But don't run away crying when he beats you. You are going against the rookie of the year and you must understand this." The girl only nodded. There were several matches before hers: Shikamaru Nara outsmarted another genius Shino Aburame; Ino Yamanaka and Ami knocked each other unconscious after a short fight; Sakura got her ass juuken'ed by Hinata Hyuuga. "And now we will have a special match..." Mizuki announced. "Uchiha Sasuke versus Sachiko. Rules are the same: taijutsu only." Almost the whole class was shocked: someone was willing to fight against Sasuke? And that someone was class' ice queen Sachiko? Opponents took their places in the ring. Sachiko was standing in a loose stance while Sasuke got into his family style's stance.

"Ready to lose, _demon lover_?" Last two words were whispered in a way that only Sachiko could hear them.

"You sure, you won't be blown away by the wind? Your ego seems to be bigger than Hokage's tower." Uchiha gave her a death glare, but had enough of self control not to start the fight right away.

"Hajime!" Mizuki announced. Sasuke immediately darted towards the girl, intent to finish the match with a single hit. But to his surprise, Sachiko caught his fist, at the same time stepping onto his foot. She pulled him forward and, before he could do anything, spun around the axis passing through these two points, kneeing him in his shoulder, sending him onto the ground. Sasuke's fangirls were now screaming for Sachiko's blood: how dare this... This bitch hurt their Sasuke-sama?

"You are dead." Uchiha boy hissed, rising from the dirt. To make his point clear, he gave Sachiko a glare with his sharingan, single tomoe revolving in each eye. He darted towards her again, this time a bit faster, almost on chuunin level, but the girl dodged his fist, bending backwards. Sasuke saw in every detail what happened next, thanks to his sharingan, but still, he was too slow to do something about it: Sachiko did a stand on her hands and immediately spun around, hitting his knees from behind, again making him fall onto the ground. Rising up from the ground for the second time, Sasuke used a dirty trick, trowing sand into girls eyes, and while she tried to clear her eyes, he attacked her, landing a good punch square on her chest. Sachiko was sent flying backwards, but by some luck stopped just before she crossed the line of the circle. Seeing his chance to win the match, Sasuke tried to hit her again to send her out of the circle, but the girl jumped high into the air and landed behind his back.

"You have good eyes, but they aren't going to help you, if your body can't keep up with them." Sachiko said, elbowing Uchiha heir out of the circle. OK, now Sasuke was pissed. Scratch that, he was beyond pissed. He flashed though the set of handseals.

"**Katon: goukakyuu!**" He exhaled a large fireball in the girl's direction. Usually Sachiko would just sidestep such an attack: her speed allowed her to do so. Unfortunately, if she did so, fireball will continue on its way and will hit several academy students that were frozen in fear by Sasuke's jutsu. So there was only one way: as she had no time for handseals, Sachiko prayed to any and all known Gods that she'd be able to pull this technique on her will. Raising her hand she will the dust on the ground to rise into the air and form a wall on fireball's path. To her luck, it worked, though the strain was a bit more, than she anticipated; she fell on one knee, breathing heavily.

"Sachiko!" Mizuki yelled. "I clearly said that you are to use only taijutsu in this match!" The girl tried to stand up, and just barely succeeded.

"Oh, and wasn't... that fireball... a ninjutsu? Or Uchiha... don't have to follow... the rules?" White-haired chuunin found himself cornered: he couldn't make Sasuke the winner of the match now – it would be a clear favoritism and if anyone told Hokage about it, he could lose his job. But he just couldn't make this girl winner too.

"As both Sasuke and Sachiko used ninjutsu during the match, the match will be a draw." He announced. Both participants of the match hissed angrily, though for a different reasons: Sachiko because of clear favoritism Mizuki displayed and Sasuke because he lost. Lost to a clanless white-haired whore. "You two, get lost from the arena, there are several more matches there!" Chuunin yelled at them. And both knew that when he was angry, it's better to do what he says or the results won't be pretty.

"Next time we fight, I will kill you." Sasuke said to Sachiko before walking away.

*******

One month before academy finals Naruto made it into Hokage's office. Through the window as the secretary wouldn't let him to come even in five meters range with the door.

"Old man!" Kyuubi jinchuuriki greeted, making Sarutobi almost knock a pile of documents from the table. Taking a deep breath to calm down, Hokage turned to the blond boy.

"Good afternoon, Naruto-kun. What brings you here today?"

"Well..." Naruto started. "There are several types of clones, right?" Sarutobi nodded: this was true. "Well... You see, I have so much chakra, that no matter what I do, I can't perform academy clone without failing the jutsu. And they don't teach or even show us other types..."

"So, basically, you want me to at least show you how to do another, more chakra-consuming, type of clones?" Sarutobi asked. Naruto nodded eagerly, making Hokage sigh. "Well... I think I can do this. I need to do exercises too, after all." Old man stood up and walked to the center of his office. "I don't think that you already know your affinity, so I won't show any elemental clones. But shadow clones might be what you need." He did a cross-shaped handseal and a copy of himself popped into the existence. "I have to warn you, Naruto, this is an A-rank ninjutsu, more, this is a kinjutsu, and for a reason. The jutsu splits the chakra evenly between you and all clones, so this easily can lead to the chakra exhaustion."

"Don't worry, old man! I promise, it won't happen!" Naruto called, trying to perform the technique. Hokage let the boy practice in his office and was really amazed, when he it correctly after almost two hours of trying, summoning three shadow clones.

'_This boy is something, don't you agree with me, Minato?_' Sarutobi thought as Naruto left his office.

*******

Somewhere in the another plane of existence Minato was a happy man with Kushina-chan lying his right side and Mikoshi-chan on his left. Apparently, Shinihami's plan backfired and instead of killing her husband and his new lover, Kushina joined them...

"I just had a feeling that someone asked me something about my son." Minato said quietly. His girls just kissed him.

"He must be a really good boy then, right, Minato-kun?" Both said simultaneously. Then Kushina added: "After all, who is his awesome mother!" Ex-Yondaime Hokage chuckled.

"Of course, how could I forget this." And three of them started laughing.

*******

"You may enter." Sarutobi said. Second later an ANBU wearing dolphin mask entered Hokage's office.

"Good evening, Hokage-sama. You wanted to see me?" Hiruzen nodded.

"Yes, yes. Dolphin, are you sure, you want to leave ANBU?"

"True. I think, I'll do better as a regular jounin." Sarutobi's eyes flashed through the document in his hands.

"Very well. If you would like, there will be a graduation from the academy in one month, and I believe, there will be many promising genins there. Do you want to try yourself as a jounin-sensei?" ANBU nodded,

"You know, Hokage-sama, I always thought that I'm better at teaching kids than anywhere else."

"As you say. So, you are now jounin of the Hidden Leaf village" Hokage said, signing a paper. "You can pull your mask off." ANBU nodded again and removed his mask, placing it onto Hokage's table and taking the paper from old man's hands. "If this is all, you are dismissed."

"Yes, thank you. Have a nice evening, Hokage-sama." Now already ex-ANBU said, before shunshining out of the Hokage's office.

* * *

That's all for now!** Read and Review**! Flames welcomed... as long as you explain why you are flaming.


	4. Genin exams and teams

Hey, everyone, I'm back with a new chapter!

* **review response**:  
**InTheYearOfTheCat**, no, Sasuke will live. For now. Sorry. And about Naruto and Sachiko: as their genders may suggest, they were born from different egg cells and thus are just like normal brother and sister. Naruto had Kyuubi's yoki sealed in him, so he wasn't exposed to its yoki for more than several minutes (yoki that leaks through the seal into his chakra system is purified.) Sachiko, on the other hand, was at the hospital (ruins of the maternity department) and was exposed to the yoki for at least half an hour just moments after she was born. And this yoki (NOT purified!!!), being a strong mutagen, 'gave' her her jinton (Dust) element. (Naruto will have earth and wind elements. And dust element is just a bloodline-made composition of these two)  
**OverLordRevan**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, true, I made Iruka ex-ANBU and jounin-sensei in this story. Don't see this often, do you?  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, life isn't fair. =P But Sachiko will be enough for our blond hero. Though, I may throw in several other girls (like Tayuya, Kagerou or, perhaps, Fuu). just to make things ...interesting. But those girl won't be related to him. This is final.  
**eclipseX**, **nwspor**, thank you!

*** jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu  
**Kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object  
**Henge **- (E-rank) Transformation - allows user to transform into another person or object  
**Bushin **- (E-rank) - creates illusionary copy of user  
**Kage bushin** - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 3: Genin exams and teams**

Naruto walked through the forest. Sachiko was busy today, so their training session was canceled. Not that the blond demon container would complain much – there was strong wind outside of the protection of giant trees, the sky was filled with low dark clouds and it was really hot; all in all not the best weather for outdoor exercises... Naruto took another turn, deciding to return to the village before it started raining, but soon came across something that made him forget that 'plan'. There was a small clearing with abandoned two-store brick house. Of course, all windows were broken and the roof needed repairs, but the walls and some things that were inside were in rather good condition.

'_It'd be much better to live here, than in my ...'house'. I just need to do some repairs here._' Blond boy though as he finished exploring the house. With this in mind he summoned a couple dozens of shadow clones to help him... The day was nearing the end, when Naruto and his clones almost finished repairing the roof. One of the clones skinned his hand against rusty nail and poofed out of the existence. The real Naruto, who happened to be close to him, picked up the plank clone was caring. Then blonds eyes fell onto the nail. '_N__eed to be careful, it's really sharp._' He though. Then something hit him: he had no contact with the nail, only his clone had, yet he knew it was sharp. '_Am I learning everything my clones learn?_' While this was interesting theory, Naruto decided to test it after he finished with the house for today...

* * *

Kyuubi jinchuuriki returned to his 'house' in the ventilation several hours after the sunset, but was quite content with himself: he finished repairing the roof of the house he found. All he needed to do now was to replace glass in the windows and repair the doors, and he'd be able to move in there. Deciding to test his theory about shadow clones, Naruto summoned single kage bushin with the simple task to count people in the street and dismiss itself. Minute later Naruto knew that even at this late hour there were about twenty people outside of the building he was in.

'_Interesting..._' He thought. '_I can use the clones to gather information. Maybe, they can be used in training not just as a sparring partners too? I'd need to test that... Later..._' Academy finals were in just three days, so he needed to get ready. Finding out what he could do with shadow clones could wait...

*******

"Neko, Kumo!" Sarutobi called and moments later two ANBU appeared in his office.

"You wanted something, Hokage-sama?" Cat-masked female warrior asked.

"Yes, yes, I have a mission for you." Hokage said. "It will be C-rank mission with B-rank payment. I need you to be observers on genin exam tomorrow. There is good possibility of misjudgment or even sabotage occurring there. You are to prevent it from happening."

"It will be be done, Hokage-sama." Bear-masked ANBU said.

"Good. You are dismissed then." Sarutobi said and two ninja disappeared from his office via shunshin.

*******

Naruto arrived to the academy early in the morning. But he actually wasn't the first one: there already were two ANBU in the classroom. As time went on, more ninja wannabes arrived and finally, just before clock shower nine in the morning, Mizuki arrived. He approached ANBU and asked something. Upon receiving their answer, he paled a bit for a moment. The first part of the genin exam was writing test, which white-haired chuunin still tried to make impassable for Naruto with barely noticeable genjutsu over his paper, but Kyuubi jinchuuriki dispelled it as soon as his paper was given to him... Two hours later Mizuki collected test papers. After this was done, everyone moved outdoors where the next few parts of the exam will be held.

"Class, you will be doing obstacle course now." Chuunin announced. "Your score will depend on the time you needed to complete the course and on how many obstacles you passed successfully." One by one, everyone started passing the obstacle course, girls first. Sachiko was the best among girls there, followed closely by Hyuuga Hinata... Sasuke, of course, tried to show off, but still, when Naruto's turn came, blond jinchuuriki showed time on par with Uchiha boy. Next there was taijutsu and knife-fighting portions of the exam – this was easy for Naruto: his spars with Sachiko, both when she was using her stylets and not paid off, and Mizuki could do nothing but give him good marks for these exam's portions.

* * *

After lunch everybody returned to the classroom for the last two parts of the exam... More than hour later it was finally Sachiko's turn to go. Five minutes later she emerged from the room where last tests were held with new hitae-ate attached to her belt... Half an hour later it was finally Naruto's turn. With reassuring nod from him friend he walked into the room.

'_He-he, demon brat won't be able to brake this illusion._' Mizuki though, casting rather powerful genjutsu on the blond. The one that made its target lose all normal senses, leaving it helpless in the empty world inside their mind... Unfortunately for him, this plan failed as yoki sealed inside Naruto broke the illusion as soon as the boy fell in it. White-haired chuunin would scream from anger, but with two ANBU in the room he couldn't do this. "OK..." He said, after taking several deep breaths to calm down. "Change into Hokage-sama."

"**Henge!**" Poof of smoke later there was a perfect replica of Sandaime standing in place of Naruto.

"...Good. Now change into me." Naruto did. Then he was asked to henge into four more people before cat-masked ANBU said that this was enough and Mizuki was forced to stop trying to find any mistakes in his jutsu. "OK. Now kawarimi with the chair in the corner." Blond jinchuuriki did this with ease. "And back." Perfect kawarimi again. "And now create at least three clones." Naruto smirked.

"**Kage bushin!**" Ten copies of him popped into the existence, making both ANBU in the room look at Naruto – not many jounin could create this much and not be winded even a little bit.

"You fail!" Mizuki said, sounding ...happy. "This is not bushin no jutsu!"

"I'm afraid, Mizuki-san..." Bear-masked man said. "...you never specified which type of clones you want, so Naruto there should pass this part of the test. And taking his performance before in the exam, I think, he should pass it." White-haired chuunin growled angrily, but threw hitae-ate to Naruto, who caught it easily. He then tied it around his forehead and walked out of the room. Instantly Sachiko appeared by his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing him on a cheek, shocking entire class by this.

"Congratulations!" She said, paying to attention to what was happening around.

"You!.. You!.." Really angry Mizuki was standing in the doors. Before he could say anything more, Sachiko looked at him.

"Oops... Sorry, _sensei_, but you can't kick me out of the academy now. I've already graduated." The girl said, pointing at her hitae-ate and putting out her tongue.

*******

"So, what did you want to show me, Naruto-kun?" Sachiko asked as the two of them walked through the forest. Blond boy smirked.

"Just wait and see." Soon they entered the clearing where the house Naruto found was. "It still needs to be repaired, but still..." He said.

"Nice house you found there. You will be living there?" The girl asked.

"When I will finish repairing, yes."

"Can I live there too?" Sachiko asked. "They will move me out of the orphanage if my team passed jounin-sensei's test. And don't feel like living in the shinobi hostel."

"Of course!" Naruto replied, happy that he will have his best friend living with him.

"Thank you!" Sachiko kissed him, this time on his lips, making the boy blush. She giggled. "Have I told you that you're so cute when you blush?" She asked. Naruto sighed with only coherent though in his head being:

'_Girls..._'

*******

Hokage, accompanied by two ANBU, stood in frond of the blackboard in the classroom. He had Mizuki removed from his position of a teacher for the breaches in teacher's code he made, and there were no 'spare' teacher available to do this.

"Alright. Calm down everyone." Sarutobi's calm voice worked much better than Mizuki's yelling and threats, and within a second there was absolute silence. "Now I will read you teams, please, listen carefully. Team one will be..." Naruto tuned the old man off, until he heard his name. "...Team five will be Uzumaki Naruto, Sai and Sachiko, jounin-sensei Umino Iruka." Naruto didn't knew who this man was and hoped that he didn't hate him for what he contained. As for his teammates, He was really happy that Sachiko was on his team. And this boy, Sai, well... Sai was absolutely neutral pale-skinned dark-haired boy with a personality of a tool – though for a tool he liked drawing too much – and special ability to animate drawn objects. Team six is still in the action from the last year. Team seven will be Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura..." There was one happy squeal, a lot of dissatisfied grunts and a single sound of head hitting the desk. "...And Ami..." There was another happy squeal, new set of discontent grunts and – now multiple – sound of head hitting the desk courtesy of Sasuke. "...jounin-sensei Hatake Kakashi. Team eight..." Naruto again tuned Hokage off.

* * *

After the lunch freshly made ninjas returned to the classroom. Soon, the door opened, revealing a man in standard jounin uniform with a pineapple styled haircut and a scar across his nose. And this man was trying to drag someone into the classroom...

"But Iruka-kohai!..." Male voice from another side of the door pleaded.

"But nothing, Kakashi-senpai. You need to be on time at least for the meeting with your team." Jounin, now known as Iruka replied. He then pulled Kakashi into the classroom and turned to the teens there. "I'm Umino Iruka. Team five, please, follow me."

"And I'm Hatake Kakashi. Team seven meet me on the roof in five minutes" Silver-haired chronically-late jounin said, before leaving the room via shunshin...

* * *

Iruka brought his students to the part.

"Now I want you tell us your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, your dream for the future. If you already have shinobi specialization, tell it too, please. I will begin. My name is Umino Iruka and I am jounin of Konohagakure no Sato. My likes include Konoha, my precious people and, especially, certain chief's daughter. I also like reading. My dislikes are those who are threat to my precious people or the village and traitors. Unfortunately my hobbies won't be interesting to you, so I'll skip this part. My dream for the future is marry the girl I lova and have family. My specializations are ninjutsu, taijutsu, battle tactics and troop coordination." Jounin said. Then he turned to Sai. "Now, why don't you tell about us." Pale-skinned boy nodded.

"My name is Sai. I have no surname. I do not have likes or dislikes. I like drawing and can use what I draw as a weapon. I do not have a dream: I am to serve Konoha, Hokage-sama and Danzou-sama will my life. My main specializations are information gathering and support."

'_Ne ANBU... Why am I so lucky? At least there will be no problems with him._' Iruka thought. "OK, you're next." He nodded to Sachiko.

"I am Sachiko. I too have no surname. I like reading training and Naruto-kun and more... I dislike arrogant bastards, stupid rules and people who can't see past their hate and fears. My hobbies are reading, and training and hanging out with Naruto-kun. I'm now not sure what my dream for the future is right now." Sachiko said. "I suppose, my specialization will be taijutsu and, as I have jinton bloodline, ninjutsu." Jounin nodded.

'_Interesting... There were no jinton users in Konoha before... I heard that current Tsuchikage has this ability..._' "And the last one."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like training, learning new jutsu and Sachiko-chan. My dislikes are certain being that turned my life into nightmare while I was younger and people who can't see the real me from behind the curtain of their hatred. My hobbies are training and hanging out with Sachiko-chan. My dream for the future... I dunno... Be a good shinobi and start a family, maybe... My specialization is ninjutsu, taijutsu and information gathering." Blond demon container said.

'_This boy is the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. With his past I'd say that he had grown up much better than we could hope. If only shinobi's life won't brake him, he will be the student every sensei would like have._' Iruka nodded. "You will learn more about each other after and if you pass the real genin test. The one that passed as an academy final was just to weed out those who had not enough personal skill to be ninja. Now you will need to show that you can work together and if you pass this test, you'll become genins of Konohagakure no Sato. If not... you can either return to the academy and try your luck next year, or drop from the program. Come to the training ground twenty six tomorrow at seven in the morning for the test. Any question?"

"What kind of the test it will be? Other that the test of our teamwork, I mean." Sachiko asked.

"It will be survival test, so be ready for it. More questions?" None. "Then you are dismissed. See you tomorrow." Jounin said, before disappearing in a swirl of wind and leaves.

* * *

That's all, folks!** R&R**!!!


	5. Iruka's test

Hello, everyone, I'm back!!!

* **review response**:  
**Elemental Dragon Swordman**, thank you, and no, not yet, two more chapters, I think...  
**InTheYearOfTheCat**, plus indeed.  
**bleacher**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, why not make Iruka strong? - he's a good guy!**  
OverLordRevan**, no harem, but a lot of lemons... And starting in the end of 'first season' time, I think lemons will be...  
**Lycan91**, **eclipseX**, **HopeBreaker**, **Veodus**, thank you!  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, "the Fuma Kagerou that green Haired beauty who have Dragonfly like wings" will have a personal story. But she might appear there too... How? - who knows. ;)  
**Liger01**, Naruto will access yoki later. Much later. but he will.  
**sexy beast1500**, well, I thought about disclosing this piece of information to them in the VERY END =)

* **Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu  
**kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object  
**henge **- (E-rank) Transformation - allows user to transform into another person or object  
**kage bushin** - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.  
**Chouju giga** - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.  
**Jinton: jinryuukamu** - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: dust dragon bite - creates a dragon head from the dust. the head will fly forward and byte the first thing in its way.

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

**chapter 4: Iruka's test**

Naruto was first to arrive to the training ground twenty six, where his team's test will be help. It was about six forty in the morning, so he just sat against the tree and decided to wait for the rest of his team... He must have closed his eyes sometime, as he didn't see Sachiko enter the training ground until she was right in front of him with her lips on his cheek.

"Wake up, Naruto-kun." She said, before braking into giggles.

"Good morning you too." Blond jinchuuriki said, standing up. He looked at his watch: it was still five minutes before the test should start. He looked around and saw Sai sitting under the other tree, drawing in his pocket book. He returned his gaze to the white-haired girl in front of him. "So... Are you ready, Sachiko-chan?"

"Baka, don't you remember what Iruka-sensei said? This is the test to see our teamwork! Of course I'm ready: we worked together for a long time, and Sai seems nice enough not to work against us." Naruto sighed.

"I remember what this test is about... But, are you ready to face a jounin, even with me and Sai?" Kunoichi nodded.

"I don't think he'll go all out on us, but, after all, we were good at the academy, maybe we can make him fight for real?" She said. Suddenly, almost right in front of them the swirl of wind and leaves appeared, and moment later Iruka-sensei stepped out of it.

"It's good that you don't fear me too much, it won't give a handicap, but being a genin just out of academy, no matter how good I am, I still wouldn't want to fight a jounin when he's serious." Scarred jounin said, before picking three bells from his belt. "Good morning everyone." He waited for Sai to come up to him, before he started explaining the test. "As you can see, there are three bells. Your task will be to take them from me before midday. You can use any weapon and jutsu you like to accomplish the task. I will see, how you can work together, so even if you fail to get the bell, you can pass the test. Remember, personal skills are important but so is the teamwork. Make me proud." He made a pause. "If there are no questions about the test..." All three genin shook their heads. "Then it begins now!" With that Iruka-sensei disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Shadow clone." Sai said. "He wants us to work together to find him and take those bells from him." Dark-haired teen said. Naruto and Sachiko nodded, agreeing with him.

"Yeah, lets find him!" Kyuubi jinchuuriki made cross-shaped handseal. "**Kage bushin!**" Fifteen copies of him popped into the existence. They immediately henge'd themselves into different small animals and spread around. At the same time Sai quickly drew a group of rats in his scroll, before too making a sequence of handseals.

"**Chouju giga!**" Small black rats ran out of boy's scroll and into all directions from the group of genin. "Now, we are looking for him and will know where he is. In the time being, its advisable to be on move." Sachiko nodded, agreeing with him, and the trio left the clearing.

* * *

Twenty minutes into the test, one of Naruto's bunny-henge'd clones found Iruka-sensei in the small clearing not far from the center of the training ground. The clone then found a place where jounin won't see it poof out of existence and then did just that.

"Found him." The real Naruto said as soon as memories of his clones entered his mind. "Five hundred forty meters at five o'clock." Sachiko and Sai nodded, and the trio went there. They stopped in the high grass not too close to the man and decided to think of a strategy.

"I can bind him with my jutsu." Sai said. "But as I am mostly support-oriented, you two will have to do close-ranged fighting." White-haired kunoichi nodded.

"Agreed. Naruto, especially with his clones, is strong, he can pin Iruka-sensei to the ground for enough time for me to take those bells, right, Naruto?" Sachiko turned to the blond jinchuuriki, giving him the look that meant he better agree, or...

"Yeah, yeah. And if anything, there is a lot of dust there, you can use of bloodline Sachiko-chan." Girl agreed with him. "So, Sai here binds sensei with his art, I pin him to the ground and Sachiko-chan steals the bells?" Two other genin nodded.

"Good plan." Said a voice above them. "If I really didn't know about it, it might have worked, but..." Iruka-sensei dropped onto the ground behind the team. "...Remember, nothing ever goes as planned." On impulse Sachiko turned around to face her sensei, while calling forth her kekkei genkai, thus the man barely had time to kawarimi out of the way of dust-made fist. Sai just finished drawing a pair of chinese lions and animated them, sending them to fight jounin, who again appeared in team's sight. Naruto and Sachiko followed drawn animals and as soon as Iruka dispatched them, Kyuubi jinchuuriki charged at him. "Stupid attack." The man commented as he just redirected Naruto away from him.

"Not entirely." But he didn't see Sachiko, who all the time hid behind her blond teammate, and as soon as Naruto's attack failed, she jumped onto his back and tried spinning kick Iruka with her leg. The man, of course, blocked her, only to find her other leg on the other side of his arm. Now, using sensei as a pivot, white-haired kunoichi tried to reach for the bells. Seeing her plan, Iruka spun around, elbowing the girl in her back and sending her onto the ground. She rolled to the stop, at the same time doing a sequence of handseals. "**Jinton: jinryuukamu!**" A dragon head made from durst rose from the ground and charged at the jounin. At the same time three ink-lions attacked him from behind. Iruka just ducked and allowed two jutsu cancel each other.

"**Kage bushin!**" Three Narutos attacked Iruka simultaneously, forcing their way into taijutsu match. Of course, even as three to one, Naruto stood no chance against experienced jounin, but his attack did buy some time... Just as Iruka threw the last blond away from him, ink-made snake wrapped itself around his legs. He was immobilized, and Sachiko again was attempting to take balls from him... So, jounin did the only thing to save the bell from these little monsters he could think of right away: he kawarimi'ed away, leaving a chunk of wood with an ink snake around it in his place.

'_Damn, those kids are good. Sai is Ne and if told he will work with anyone, and from reports, Naruto and Sachiko were friends for years... still, I clearly underestimated the level of their teamwork. They already passed the test, but let's see, what else they can do._' Iruka though as he hid in the small forest. For genin his team was rather strong in combat. And not at all bad at information gathering...

* * *

The team tracked Iruka down in less then twenty minutes, and jounin then had to face even better fighting plan tree teens produced: hell, they already could take on average chuunin, he though. After the short fight – he got several bruises and a small cut on his cheek during it – he again escaped them with a well-performed kawarimi and shunshin. He decided to play with his team. He summoned six shadow clones and sent them to the different parts of the training ground, while he himself left it. Let the kids have some fun...

* * *

Just at noon, Iruka called team five to the clearing where the test started. When tired, sweaty and a little angry – Naruto and Sachiko – teens sat down, he began.

"Congratulations, even if didn't get the bells from me, you passed the test." Jounin said as he leaned against the tree. "Actually, you three past it in our first fight. The rest of time I used to observe your skills. I can say, I'm impressed." Everyone but Sai beamed with the praise. "Tonight... I wish to celebrate this, so meet me... At the central park at half past five. Then we'll decide where we'll go. Questions?" He got none. "Then, you're dismissed, team." And he left via shunshin. Sai nodded goodbye to his teammates and walked away. Sachiko looked at Naruto and grinned.

"What?" The blond jinchuuriki asked.

"Oh, I just remembered seeing a very nice river on the training ground... Let's go bathe!" And without waiting for him to reply, white-haired girl dragged him towards the said river.

*******

"Report." Sandaime Hokage said, sitting in his office. As jounins reported, everyone in the room learned that teams from one to four failed.

"Team five passed the test successfully, Hokage-sama." Iruka said. Sarutobi nodded and looked at him.

"What can you tell about your team?"

"Naruto and Sachiko have frightening level of teamwork and with the addition of Sai, they can kick pretty much any chuunin's ass." He paused. "They are good at fighting, but they also have good skills at tracking and information gathering. I dare say that if we teach one of them interrogation, we will have a battlefield reconnaissance cell, the team that can go into the battle, get information needed and successfully return. If not, we still have just a good fighting team." Hokage nodded.

"Thank you, Iruka-san. I'll talk with Ibiki-san about this. Next?" Team six failed and team seven, the one under Kakashi, passed only because they had Uchiha and the council needed him to be ninja. Team eight under Kurenai became the new tracking team and team ten with Asuma as jounin-sensei joined the ranks as fighting team. With all the results presented, the meeting was adjourned and jounins went on their businesses. Hokage asked Iruka to remain. "Tell me about Naruto-kun. Remembering how biased the academy was against him, I don't think his skills came from there." Iruka nodded.

"I agree, Hokage-sama. From what I observed, he is mostly self-taught or at least taught by his peers, Sachiko most likely, as the two of them are very close friends." Sarutobi nodded.

"Indeed, the two are really close. Watch out, Iruka-san, or you soon may have a pair of lover birds on your hands." The old man said with a chuckle and scarred jounin smiled.

"Time will tell, but I don't think it will be a problem... Is that all, Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi lit his pipe and nodded.

"Yes. You are dismissed." Iruka nodded and left the office via shunshin.

* * *

**R&R**, comrades!


	6. Genin days

Hello, everyone! I finally got around to update this story too. Sorry, took me a lot of time to do so... Well, anyway...

*** Review response**:  
**Elemental Dragon Swordman**, well, I planned Naruto and Sachiko be good enough (not super, but still good and all...).**  
eclipseX**,** OverLordRevan**, **Evil E. Evil**, **OBSERVER01**, thank you!  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, true... and, also, any and all jinchuuriki and almost everyone with jounin-level reserves have enough chakra to create a dozen of shadow clones. Just most of those won't have chakra for anything more then.  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, one or two stories? show them to me! plz!!! Anyway, I'm still not sure if I want to add Kagerou to the Naruto/Sachiko pairing... But she definitely will star in the stories that are coming soon. (in june, though... I have exams starting just 18th may...). And, well, Iruka's team will mostly be on the same level as the Sand trio. ;)  
**Tristan76**, well, by birth they are fraternal twins, but, yes, Kyuubi's yoki made them much different even in terms of genetics. Sachiko has jinton (DUST! element = wind x earth) kekkei genkai while Naruto is stuck with no bloodline.

*** Jutsu list**:**  
Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**kage bushin** - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.

* * *

_**AN**_: Before you ask, I know that what Sachiko tried to do with Naruto in the park would accomplish exactly the opposite from what she intended to do, but, hey, she's twelve and (sometimes) stupid. He's not any better, though.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
"_speaking through sign language_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 5: Genin days**

Large black and white jaws swung shut around one certain cat. Then the drawn giant bulldog ran back to its creator, all the time wobbling its short tail. Sai made the dog open its mouth, and frightened Tora the cat jumped out of it straight into Sachiko's arms. Naruto's eyes traveled for a moment towards his teammate, who was holding Tora to her chest, before he blushed and looked away. Noticing that, the girl gained a slight pink on her cheeks too. That didn't mean that she was annoyed with his recent behavior, though... The things between those two were awkward like that for several days already, ever since Sachiko and Naruto had their small visit to the river to bath. The thing is... Sachiko had no bathing suit with her and she also wore no bra, so as the were bathing, blond jinchuuriki got several nice eyefuls of her nicely developing breasts...

"Objective completed, sensei." White-haired kunoichi exclaimed as she held resisting cat tighter.

"Eighteen minutes and forty seven seconds... I think it's a new record. Nice job, team." Jounin laughed. "Now, let's head back to the tower." And the team five started running towards Hokage tower to mark this mission, their fifth D-rank, as completed. After Tora was returned to the daimyo's wife and Hokage dismissed them, Iruka too let Sai free for the rest of the day, but asked Naruto and Sachiko to follow him. Several minutes later they ended in a small park a block away from the Hokage tower. "I don't know, what's going between you two..." Scarred jounin said. "...But this shouldn't interfere with your teamwork. Normally, we'd have a team training now, but instead I give you until tomorrow to solve whatever problem you have." Then he did a one-handed handseal and disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves. Sachiko sighed.

"Look at me, Naruto-kun." Blond in front of her blushed a bit, but refused to do as she said. Deciding that desperate times call for desperate measures, she reached for him and placed her hands on his cheeks, before pulling him into a bit one-sided kiss. Surprised, Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked at her with wide eyes. Sachiko broke the kiss and backed away a bit then. "Now, that's better." She said with a blush that pretty much mirrored Naruto's. As he was still looking at her wide-eyed, white-haired girl continued. "I'm flattered that you find my body attractive, but we're friend, are we not?" Naruto tried to look away, but she held his head firmly. "Look at me." Leaning over him, she whispered into his ear. "You saw me topless, so what? It's not like I'm angry with you... Actually, if you ask nicely, I may show them to you again." She said with a wink.

"B-But..." Kyuubi jinchuuriki doddered, all while blushing crimson.

"Oh..." Sachiko moaned. "Stop it, Naruto-kun! Stop acting like you did something bad." Pause... "What do I have to do with you so that you will act normally around me again?.. Maybe I should..." Sachiko trailed off as Naruto raised his eyes at her. "Now, that's better..."

"And there we have the dobe and his whore." Unmistakable voice of Uchiha Sasuke sneered behind them. "I think I'll have to kill them before they create more useless idiots to fill the village in." He laughed, and two banshees of his teammates laughed with him.

"What are you thinking, slut, Sasuke-kun will be yours if you show him that you allow even the scum to touch you? Stupid. Sasuke-kun will pick a decent girl like me!" Blue-haired fangirl named Amy added her two cents.

"Wait a minute! Why would he end with you? Sasuke-kun will chose me!" Another banshee that went by the name Sakura yelled. Naruto and Sachiko, both boiling with anger, looked at each other.

"Shall we kick their asses?" Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked. His white-haired teammate nodded.

"Definitely."

Next morning Naruto and Sachiko entered training grounds together. Sai wasn't there yet, but Iruka-sensei could be found leaning against one of the trees.

"I see, you two are again as you were the day I met you." Jounin commented. Naruto grinned: teaching Sasuke and his side-kick fan-banshees how to be respectful towards his peers was definitely a good way to solve _the problem_. Sachiko only smiled lightly. "Good." Just several minutes later the third genin of the team five arrived. "Now that we are all here, let us start the training. Normally, I'd teach you tree-climbing exercise today, but I think it's safe to assume that you already know it as I saw you all use the skill at one point of time or another."

"Yes, Iruka-sensei." Said Sai, while Naruto and Sachiko just nodded.

"So, then, we will now have 'vertical' spars, taijutsu only. After that... we'll see."

* * *

Naruto had to fight his sensei while both were standing on a trunk of a giant tree. On the tree nearby Sachiko was facing Sai. Turning his attention from his best friend back to his opponent, Kyuubi jinchuuriki prepared himself... Seeing that he wasn't attacking, Iruka sprang into the action, trying to keep himself on an low-chuunin level of skill – it would do no good to his students, if he beat his genin in just a couple of seconds. Blond shinobi ducked under his sensei's fist and caught his leg with his hand moment later. For a moment both were motionless, but the young jinchuuriki all but threw Iruka back, and tried to attack him with a powerful punch to his midsection before jounin could recover. Even with his ANBU training, Iruka barely blocked incoming attack, mostly because he was surprised by the power Naruto possessed: the boy was rather small.

"Not bad." Older ninja commented, before launching a combo of punches and kicks at his opponent, who was moving back while keeping his block up. "Good... But your tactics are flawed." Iruka said as he threw a powerful punch that, even though Naruto blocked it, almost threw the blond off the tree. "You let yourself being pushed into the corner, so to say." He tried to hit Kyuubi jinchuuriki once more, but the blond shinobi dodged it and then attempted to strike jounin's legs. Iruka, of course, saw that coming and jumped back up the tree. "That's more like it." He commented, before turning his attention to the other sparring pair, just in time to see Sachiko land a hit that sent Sai off the tree. Pale boy harmlessly landed on the ground, but his spar was lost. Noticing that too, Naruto turned to congratulate his female best friend on winning the match, but instead he got a kick to his side and too ended on the ground a couple of seconds later...

* * *

"Now, Naruto, Sai, can any of you tell what was done wrong in your spars?" Iruka asked. Of course, he himself could easily point his genin's mistakes, but it would be more beneficial to them if they themselves found their errors.

"I used incorrect tactics against the opponent who was faster and more agile than I am. Relying on dodging in such case isn't a good option." Sai said and jounin nodded.

"You are right. It would do better to try to block attacks instead of dodging them if you face someone who is faster than you are." Iruka lectured. "Blocking is faster than dodging, so if you lack speed over your opponent – try blocking. Though, if your opponent is also much stronger than you are, this won't work... OK... And, Naruto, what was your mistake?" Blond jinchuuriki scratched the back of his head.

"I paid more attention to what was happening to my teammates than I paid to my actual opponent." Scarred jounin nodded again.

"True. Remember: until you are sure that your opponents are out of the fight, never look around without having your back protected." Iruka looked up at the sun. "...It's almost half past eleven, so we will do an hour long brake for now. After that, meet me in front of Hokage tower for our daily D-rank." As his genin nodded, jounin disappeared via shunshin.

Another week of those stupid D-rank missions later Naruto, with some help from Sachiko, finally collected enough money to replace glass in the windows of 'their' house. White-haired kunoichi agreed to buy the glass, as many merchants still overcharged her teammate, while he would do the replacement. And as they had a day off, there was no problem with executing the plan, so by the sunset, the duo could finally move into the forest house. Right now they had sleeping bags instead of beds and their rooms were mostly empty, but this was still better than their previous living arrangements, especially for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki...

A month after the team five passed his test, Iruka finally deemed them ready for their first C-rank mission. So, after the team assembled at their usual spot, scarred jounin led them to briefing hall of the Hokage tower. There he asked for the mission his team will get and, after Sarutobi agreed that the team was ready for such a job, he gave them a simple escort mission: they had to protect merchants' caravan on their way back to the land of Rivers. Early in the next morning, team five met in front of west gate where the caravan stood ready to depart.

"The formation will be like this: Sai will take the front, Naruto – left, I'll guard the right side and Sachiko will take the back." Iruka said. When everyone was in their position, caravan started on its way. The carts, pulled by mules were slow, despite being mostly empty, and so by the nightfall they covered less than hundred miles – something a shinobi by himself could cover in five to seven hours. The next day was pretty much the same: hot, slow and boring.

* * *

The third day seemed to be the same, except for a small rain in the afternoon, but about three hours before sundown, something changed.

"_Something's wrong. The forest is too quiet._" Naruto sent to Iruka through the language of hand signs. Jounin nodded, his gut too was telling him that something will happen.

"_Indeed. Caravan might get attacked._" And just several seconds after this message, large group of armed bandits appeared in front of the first cart. Another, with several rogue ninja among them – behind the last. "_Go help Sai._" Iruka added hastily. Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded and sped towards where pale boy's drawn animals were fighting the mass of thugs and were slowly losing...

"**Kage bushin!**" Blond shinobi announced his jutsu, and fifteen copies of him joined the fight, wile the original one stayed at some distance, using low level earth-style ninjutsu on bandits that got too close to the caravan, from time to time adding another batch of clones into the main fight. In the end, it took only a couple of minutes for two genin to defeat the thugs. Sai was breathing hard: this fight took a lot of him, and his chakra reserves were really low right now. Naruto, on the other hand, was just winded a little, so, seeing as the fight on the other end of the caravan was still going on, he decided to lend a hand to Iruka and Sachiko-chan. But when he was just a couple of carts away from them, he saw large ronin pin his white-haired teammate to the ground.

"You are cute, girl. Boys will like to have some fun with you." The man said as one of his hands moved to Sachiko's chest... Immediately red hot anger clouded Naruto's vision: no one dared to do that to his …friend!

* * *

Sachiko all but resigned to her fate right now as she was thrown onto the ground by a much larger man, whose one hand was on her neck, while he attempted to molest her with the other. She underestimated this man in the fight, not expecting one of the bandits to be upper-chuunin level rogue ninja... Suddenly something big and crimson-red slammed into the man's side, throwing him away from her and into the tree. Moment later a dreadful malevolent aura flooded the entire area. Turning her head to the side, white-haired girl saw the source of this aura: Naruto, surrounded by crimson glow, which mostly concentrated around his right hand and extended from there into the appendage that saved her.

"**Do not dare to touch her like that!**" Blond shinobi growled in a low demonic voice, his still blue, but now absolute-zero-cold, eyes with slitted pupils for a moment shot down to his teammate, but then returned back to the offender of Sachiko. The ronin could stand against the killing intent Kyuubi jinchuuriki radiated, but he no longer could fight effectively, especially against the blond, so Naruto, using his newly found strength and speed started beating the man... Only to be stopped several seconds later by Iruka.

"We need him alive to interrogate him." Jounin said. Naruto turned his head to look at him, but during it his eyes finally registered the fact that he was now surrounded by crimson yoki.

"**Wha?!.**" Blond shinobi shouted, stumbling back. "**Turn.. Turn me back!!!**" Just before his panic got the better of him, a pair of soft yet strong arms wrapped around his midsection as well as a chin placed itself gently on his shoulder and a warm body was now pressed into his back.

"Naruto-kun... calm down. You saved me. I'm fine now." Sachiko said in a whisper, desperately fighting against the effects of the malevolent aura on the inside... Her words seemed to have the effect, and Kyuubi jinchuuriki started to calm down and the yoki that surrounded the blond started receding. And when it all was gone, Naruto blackened out. Iruka sighed, not really knowing what to say to his genin right now.

Naruto woke up about half an hour later, after having a dream about cracked, but self-restoring, glass with a kanji for 'seal' on it, that held the evil yoki sealed in a world that he and Sachiko with Hokage's help identified as his subconscious.

As for the rest of the mission, the last two days were quiet and the caravan safely reached the destination. Iruka allowed his team to rest there for a day, before heading back to Konoha... They were halfway back to the Hidden Leaf when a messenger hawk decided to make an appearance, delivering a scroll from Hokage to the jounin. After he finished reading it, Iruka sighed.

"Team, we have another mission: we are to help team eight under Yuhi Kurenai with their mission. They encountered a group of missing-nins and requested help. Team eight will also be given a jounin and an ANBU. Think of this as a chance to see how large-scale missions are conducted." Jounin said. "Normally, though, team eight would be given an ANBU cell or jounin-chuunin extra team, but because of the certain event that will happen in the Konoha in a couple of month, a lot of Konoha elite forces are used for security of the village and aren't sent on the missions that are outside the walls..." Iruka explained the reason for such a 'strange' decision Hokage made in regards of the support to the team eight. "We will rest now, and tomorrow we're heading to the land of Waves."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei." Three genin said simultaneously.

* * *

That's all, folks! **Read** and **Review**!


	7. Weapons and tools

Hello, everyone, I back with the next chapter of "_**The demon and the ghost**_"! Hope, I didn't make you wait for too long?

* **Review response**:  
**eclipseX**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, one can always hope. =) Jokes aside, there surely will more developments in that relationship in the nearest future. Not this chapter, though.  
**akkyou no Yami**, bahish, her (you're talkin' 'bout Kagerou, right)? Not likely. Fuuma aren't that strong clan after all to just banish one of their strongest (and most loyal) ninja. She'll more likely be an envoy of the clan in Konoha if I decide to add her into the story/pairing. As for Tayuya... Dunno, will decide when I get there.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, yes, Sachiko was in state of shock and couldn't think properly of a way of defending herself. Naruto and Kyuubi's yoki... Why not there (he had a reason: one of his most precious person was attack and couldn't defend herself), especially since he won't have a nine-tailed incident in the wave...  
**jinlai**, **OBSERVER01**, thank you!  
**shankstar89**, who doesn't like them, eh? Unfortunately, no limes/lemons until they are at least fourteen...

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Fuuton reppushou** - (C-rank) Wind style: gale wind palm - strong gust of wind sent towards his target. When acting in conjunction with another thrown weapon, the wind can increase its power and deadliness.  
**Kage bushin** - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.  
**Jinton: kyumyoryouko** - (A-rank) Dust style: nine mystical dragons - My original ninjutsu. Sachiko makes dust around her form nine dragon heads that will attack any enemy within their rather formidable range. While performing this jutsu, Sachiko can't move and has to keep her hand in the handseal.  
**Doton: toge ryudou** - (B-rank) Earth style: spiked land - My original ninjutsu. Does exactly what its name suggests: turn a big patch of land in front of the user into stone spikes.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
"_speaking through sign language_"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

_**AN**_: for those interested: Haku on this story is male (like he should be) and will be at some point turned in to the Mist, along with a certain sword.  
Oh, and this chapter show a darker side of shinobi work. sorry.

* * *

**chapter 6: Weapons and tools**

Two days later – they now weren't slowed down by civilian caravan – team five reached the meeting point with the team eight under Kurenai. Female jounin had her team build fortified camp where they four plus the client – man of about sixty years old with small glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose. He was wearing dark T-shirt with small towel on his shoulders – along with another, sickly-looking, jounin and female ANBU, both with their swords, were waiting for them, talking among themselves. Recognizing the ANBU by her very distinctive purple hair and cat mask, Naruto ran towards her.

"Neko-nee-chan!" Young jinchuuriki hugged the woman from behind, making sword-wielding jounin let out a constrained cough. He looked at Naruto, who still had his arms around woman's midsection, then at Neko-masked ANBU.

"Should I be jealous?" He asked.

"Nah, you don't need to, Hayate-kun, I'm not into younger men. Plus I don't think his girlfriend will approve." Female ANBU replied, gesturing towards Sachiko, making said girl blush, along with Naruto and Hyuuga girl from Kurenai's team, Hinata, for some reason, while the rest laughed.

"Oh, well, it's quite enough. We have a serious mission there." Iruka said, making everyone calm down. "I take it that Neko is in command there?" ANBU nodded. "I ask for an hour for my team to learn about fortified camp structure: I was yet to cover it in my teaching."

"Granted." Neko said simply.

* * *

An hour later two genin teams, extra jounin and ANBU – don't forget the client, _super_ bridge-builder Tazuna – were on their way to the Wave country, keeping their formation like this: the client was in the center, Hayate, Shino Aburame and Hinata in the front; Neko, Sai and Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru guarding the rear; Iruka and Naruto – right side and Kurenai and Sachiko – left... They reached the coast of the Fire country without any problems other than Tazuna being civilian, but once they were there, they found out that the only way to get to the Wave country was a small fisherman's boat that certainly couldn't carry twelve people.

"How wide is this strait?" Neko asked. Tazuna thought for several seconds.

"About eight miles. The bridge is currently about a mile long." The man answered.

"So, seven miles..." ANBU said to herself. "Everyone up for a run?" Everyone, minus Tazuna who didn't understand what was going on, nodded, though Hinata and Kiba were hesitant. "If you don't feel confident in your reserves, you can take a soldier's pill. Iruka-san, you're carrying the client." Scarred jounin nodded as did the two hesitant genins.

"Wha-?" Tazuna exclaimed as his protectors, one of whom was carrying him, started running on the water. It wasn't as quiet way of traveling as the boat would be, but it was OK... And much faster. The ninjas reached the bridge in under half an hour. From there they were walking again. They passed small and very poor town, passed through small uninhabited island and entered another, bigger one, with a forest on it, when Naruto suddenly stopped.

"Something's wrong here. The forest sounds too uneasy." Jounins, ANBU, Sachiko and Kiba listened and had to agree with the blond jinchuuriki.

"Hinata, can you check the forest?" Kurenai asked. Timid girl nodded and activated her bloodline.

"**Byakugan!**" She studied the surroundings for a couple of seconds. "There is no one in two hundred meters radius, Kurenai-sensei." White-eyed girl said finally.

* * *

Two hundred and fifteen meters away from them certain Kiri missing-nin with a large head-cleaving sword was sweating bullets, along with his masked apprentice.

'_Damn! Hyuuga, three jounins, Konoha ANBU chick and a bunch of brats! The report said that only one genin team was guarding the old man. They must have asked for the help after encountering those two imbeciles!_' Zabuza thought frantically. '_I need to kill the old man without them engaging me in the combat... It'll be hard, but nothing impossible._' He turned to his apprentice. "We're changing our plans." Masked ninja nodded.

"Yes, Zabuza-sama."

* * *

The Leaf ninja and Tazuna walked trough the forest for an hour when they reached large clearing with a small lake there. Just when they reached the center of the clearing, mist began thickening around them to the point when normal eye couldn't see further than just a couple of feet.

"We are not alone here." Neko observed. "Hinata-san?" The Hyuuga girl nodded once again activation byakugan.

"The mist is saturated with chakra, I can't see further than twenty feet." She said, keeping her bloodline active, just in case.

"This means chakra pulse is useless too. And the mist is thick enough to interfere with sounds. It's a work of high-level Kiri jounin." Iruka observed as ten ninja of the Hidden Leaf stood on guard around Tazuna. "Sachiko?" He asked.

"It's too humid for me to use jinton." The white-haired kunoichi replied.

"True." Naruto agreed. "But you still can use wind and earth... Quick! Do your most powerful wind jutsu at four o'clock!" Blond shinobi said, igniting one of the matches. Those could burn even in rain, so mist was no problem for them. Sachiko nodded and started performing the sequence of handseals.

"**Fuuton: reppushou!**" Naruto threw the match into the pass of the wind jutsu, turning it into the fireball. The fireball flew through the mist, clearing it a bit. Then there was a sound of the big splash of water. There mush have been water clone or something like that.

"H-How did you?.." Iruka began his question, but Naruto interrupted him.

"Just call it precognition." Moment later there was a clanging sound of metal hitting metal and everyone could see Hayate and Neko blocking large head-cleaving sword with their katanas. Second later the enemy's sword disappeared back into the mist, but every jounin already knew who was their opponent: the demon of the Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza. "Damn!" Naruto quickly moved his hands into the cross-shaped handseal. "**Kage Bushin!**" A bunch of shadow clones appeared in a poofs of smoke and jumped up into the air. Moment later they all disappeared. Large ice needles fell into the ground...

"It's not good at all. Zabuza alone was bad enough, but with hyoton user and in such humid environment, the fight has just become ten times harder." Hayate commented.

"We need to move away from the mist..." ANBU thought. Then she looked at Naruto. "You seem to have a lot of chakra. Can you provide a distraction?" Blond jinchuuriki nodded. He used a lot of chakra, summoning a small army of about seventy shadow clones, sending all but twenty in all directions to attack invisible foe. Ten henge'd themselves into Tazuna and the rest of ninja, while the final ten were kept in case the real group was attack to be used for the kawarimi jutsu. Then Neko did a quick jutsu to silence the steps of the groop. Using the information killed clones fed him, Naruto helped the whole group to reach the edge of the clearing where the mist wasn't as thick. "Time to counterattack."

"Hai." Iruka, Kurenai and Hayate said. All four high-level ninjas performed a quick sequence of handseals, before exhaling large fireballs that killed another water clone of Zabuza. And the mist was almost completely gone after this moves.

"Hinata?" Neko asked. White-eyed girl nodded and again activated her bloodline.

"Zabuza is behind large pine at six o'clock, another ninja, most likely chuunin, is on the oak at eleven." ANBU nodded.

"Iruka-san, with me, we take on Zabuza; Kurenai-san and Hayate-san, hyoton user is yours." She then looked at genins. "You six are guarding Tazuna." And just as they nodded, she and jounins disappeared. Three minutes later Kurenai and Hayate returned with unconscious ninja in mask. They looked like they went through the waterfall, but were mostly unharmed. The ninja was check and when he wasn't found in bingo books, it was decided that he can be kept alive. The battle between Zabuza and Neko and Iruka went for another ten minutes, ending with scarred jounin killing Kiri missing-nin with a doton ninjutsu. Both Leaf ninja looked quite worn and had some minor wounds from the fight, but too were in a good shape. Iruka was caring the Kiribuki Houchou over his sholder when he and Neko-masked ANBU rejoined the group.

"As Zabuza was an A-ranked ninja, I do believe, he was the top dog in the enemy's forces. Of course, another strong missing-nin can be hired, but it will take several days, so I say, Kurenai-san and Iruka-san with their teams continue the mission while me and Hayate-san will escort captured ninja back to Konoha. Once we're done, we will return." Neko said. "There is also an issue with the sword." She said, pointing at the Kiribuki Houchou. "The sword, be it returned to the Hidden Mist, can make neutrality between two hidden villages more stable, but as it is unknown, whether the civil war in the land of Water has ended or not, as is who is the current Mizukage, the sword can't be brought there right now. So it too will be brought back to Konoha by us."

"This was a small part of mission strategies and politics of inter-village relationships. One day you may face similar problems while you're commanding your own unit, so try to learn as much about your enemy and his country and traditions as possible. It'll make your life easier and longer." Iruka added his comment for the two genin teams.

"After all, we all, ninjas, are a part of a big machines called hidden villages. And while we are weapons of the village, tools, we need to think about what we're doing so that our mistake won't cause any ...unpleasant things. This is the reality of our world: ninjas are the tools that are supposed to think and work for the welfare of their village. Remember it." Hayate said, picking up unconscious ninja. Neko already had Zabuza's sword attached to her back. "We wish you all good luck and the easy end of the mission. It was a pleasure to work with you all. Iruka, Kurenai." Man nodded to the two other jounins before he and Neko went on their way back to the Hidden Leaf.

* * *

Teams five and eight reached Tazuna's house in less them thirty minutes without any more problems. Unfortunately for them, bridge builder's house was too small to house eight more persons, so it was decided that Kurenai and girls will be living there, while Iruka and boys will be in the fortified camp the built not far from the house. Both jounins were sure that once Gato, who ordered Tazuna dead, hears about Zabuza failing his mission, magnate will either hire an army of thugs or a bunch of missing-nins. So for the safety of their client, it was decided that one team will be guarding Tazuna and his workers on the bridge, while the other – bridge builder's house, switching daily.

For the first two days since their arrival to the Wave, everything was quiet, but both Kurenai and Iruka didn't allow any lax in security, which was a good thing as they didn't know when their enemy will strike...

/** *** **\**  
**

On the third day since Tazuna returned to the land of Waves, when Zabuza was still missing, short shipping magnate and underworld king that went by the name Gato decided that the hired missing-nin failed his mission and won't get his money, not that he planned on giving them to him anyway. So Gato summoned a small army of cheap thugs – they all cost less than Zabuza alone – and decided to pay a visit to the building site, while the small group of his samurai will attack the bridge builder's house.

* * *

The day was murky with a mist over the sea, that will allow his troops to approach the bridge undetected. Or so Gato thought... Iruka was clever enough to place several detection seals on the pillars of the bridge, so when the boat with thugs moored to the bridge, team five that was protecting this site today was immediately alerted. Konoha jounin ordered all workers to evacuate, so when the thugs and Gato himself clambered onto the bridge, they saw only four shinobi and Tazuna.

"Kill all ninjas and the bridge builder!" Shipping magnate ordered. "When you are finished, you can go into the town and take everything valuable you see and any women you want." Thugs let out vociferous 'Hai!' and attacked. Fools.

"**Jinton: kyumyoryouko!**" As the top of the bridge was dry enough, Sachiko could use her bloodline techniques, and white-haired kunoichi used one of her most powerful techniques, making nine dragon heads rise from the ground and attack enemies. Sai, as always, used his drawn animals to take his opponents down, Iruka just used taijutsu and kunai... Not to be outdone by his teammates, Naruto too used his jutsus:

"**Doton: toge ryoudo!**" Thousands upon thousands of sharp stone spear-tips grew out of the surface of the bridge, wounding everyone who was unlucky enough to be in the area of the jutsu... Just in under five minutes all hundred thugs were either killed – by Sai or Iruka mostly – or heavily wounded and unable to continue fighting, leaving, now quite scared, Gato alone facing four ninjas and Tazuna... Iruka looked around, noticing what his team did to the thugs.

"Damn... I created a team of monsters..." He said quietly to himself, before looking straight at the Gato. Moment later he was right in front of the short man. "For you crimes against the land of Waves and..."

"Please, spare me! I will give you anything you want!" Gato pleaded, but Konoha jounin didn't listen...

"...You are sentenced to death." The moment he finished his phrase, Iruka thrust kunai into man's heart, killing him instantly. The jounin turned around, not looking at man he just killed, and walked up to the nearest thug alive. Picking him up, Iruka looked straight into his eyes, radiating small amount of KI "Tell me, where Gato's base is." Leaf ninja ordered. The man gave him coordinates in a faltering voice, before blacking out. Iruka sighed and threw him down. Done there, jounin approached Tazuna. "We dealt with your prime offender, but it will be better if the teams stay there for another week to protect you and others from the thugs and bandits that will go on a robbing spree as they have no one to pay the now. This is, of course, if you don't mind our presence." Tazuna shook his head.

"But today's sunset you'll be the heroes of Wave! Of course no one will mind you being here." Bridge builder replied loudly.

"Good." Iruka said with a nod. "This brings us to the second point of our current discussion. Tomorrow me and my team will raid Gato's base in this land. If we're lucky, you will pay only for another C-rank mission, instead of an A-rank: we will take those money from the Gato. The of the money, of course, will be given back to the people of the Land of Waves." Tazuna smiled.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Leaf jounin sighed. Sometimes dealing with clients was just too troublesome, like men of certain Konoha clan used to say...

/ ***** **\

Next began early for the team five with Iruka taking them to raid Gato's base. The said base happened to be several large warehouses, surrounded by wire fence with a small group of thugs guarding it. They posed no danger to any trained shinobi and were disposed before they could even blink by Iruka. With them done for good, team went into the base and began exploring it. Much to their disgust, they found not only weapons and narcotics there, but also several cages with female slaves that were immediately freed, given clothes and some money from what the team found in the Gato's office... When they finally finished their raid, Iruka took the amount of money one usually got for an upper-level A-rank mission from what was left of Gato's funds after giving money to the freed slaves, and sealed the rest for the people of the Wave.

"We are done here, team, let's return to the base." Jounin said, making his three tired genins sigh in agreement...

/ ***** **\

Teams five and eight spent another eight days in the land of Waves, guarding locals from the possible thugs attacks, none of which, luckily, happened. With the help of an army of Naruto's shadow clones, Tazuna managed to build an entire mile of his bridge before Leaf ninja left the country. The man decided to name the bridge he was building 'the great bridge of friendship' as eight Konoha ninjas became quite good friends with him personally, his family and the people of the Wave they saved from the tyrant... As for the said ninja, they all were just glad that their mission ended with a success...

* * *

That's all, folks. **Read **and **Review**!


	8. Approaching exams

Hello, everyone, I'm back and I have the newest chapter of the "_**the Demon and the Ghost**_". Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, precognition will be explained this chapter. Haku was tied up and brought by Hayate and Yuugao to Konoha. And Naruto's always protective of those he cares about.  
**Reishin Amara**, **nobother**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, **Tristan76**, **eclipseX**, **Badboyzkg**, **thecrazyfatguy**, thank you!  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, Kiribuki Houchou will be brought back to Kiri sometime later in the story. As for Haku's fate, look at me response to **Still Not Dead Yet**'s review.  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, I will think more about adding Kagerou in this story. But she already got her own piece of Naruto (my read "Ethereal" story). And I'm starting Naruto/Kagerou/Mei story soon...

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Killing Intent** - projection of the fearsomeness aura onto the area. It can also be directed at a certain person. Strong KI may paralyze, cause visions of death, do psychological damage or even kill (if the target has weak heart)**  
Shunshin **- (D-rank) change of body stance - 'teleportation' jutsu.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

**chapter 7: Approaching exams**

After they returned from the Wave, for a week team five took only D-ranked and C-ranked missions that didn't take them outside the village walls – they've already gotten their dose of the dangerous missions for now... With the money they were paid for the successful A-rank mission, Naruto and Sachiko could furniture their house easily. They bought beds for their rooms, wardrobes, shelves for the books and scrolls they owned, normal tables and chairs for the kitchen and dining room. All in all, two ninjas now had their house almost completely made.

It was an early morning and Naruto was having his breakfast that consisted of a plate of cereal, some bread with bacon and a glass of apple juice – while the Kyuubi jinchuuriki still loved ramen, early in his academy days Sachiko made it clear for him that eating just noodles isn't healthy and he won't be as strong as he could be, should he eat more healthy food... Hearing footsteps on the ladder, Naruto looked through the kitchen's door-frame and saw his white-haired teammate and cohabitant, clad in only oversized T-shirt, that left one of her shoulders bare, and a pair of simple white panties, her hair in a disorder from sleeping... Yawning, Sachiko sat at the table and reached for her own portion of cereal, while rubbing her sleepy eyes with her other hand.

"Mornin', Naruto-kun." She said with another yawn.

"Good morning, Sachiko-chan." The blond jinchuuriki replied as he took another seep of juice from his glass. Besides this greeting, their breakfast was spent in silence... Half and hour later, Naruto and Sachiko, ready for the day, left their house and headed to the training ground twenty six where they were to meet Iruka-sensei.

* * *

Not surprisingly, Sai was already there, drawing one thing or other in his album. The trio exchanged greetings and continued waiting for their sensei to arrive. Iruka arrived five minutes later.

"Good morning." He greeted them. "Today we're going to continue working on your taijutsu and armed-combat. But before we start, Naruto, I was forgetting to ask you this since the battle with Zabuza: how did you know back there where his clone was in the mist? You said that you have some kind of precognitive ability, can you elaborate?" Naruto sighed.

"OK." He paused for a moment. "When I was five or six, I was struck by a lightning during a storm." Sachiko placed her hand on his shoulder, hoping that this will help him fight against memories he didn't want to relive right now. "I don't know what happened with me that night, but ever since then my body generates a small electric field around itself, and when something moves inside the field, I can feel it."

"So, it's like you have a bubble around you?" Iruka-sensei asked.

"More like... I'm a spider in the center of a web." Scarred jounin nodded, accepting the analogy.

"Good, but you said that you 'web' is rather small. I take it, it isn't like forty meters in radius." Naruto nodded.

"I can extend it up to five feet radius from my body." Anticipating his sensei's next question, the young jinchuuriki continued. "But because of the thick mist over the clearing, I could feel an approximate direction of where something was moving in the mist. Guess, we were lucky that Sachiko-chan hit that water clone with her first attack." Jounin nodded, accepting blond's explanation.

"Now, let's start working!"

* * *

In the afternoon, team five entered the briefing hall in the Hokage tower, but before they could pick the mission themselves, chuunin was sitting there, picked four scrolls from the table.

"Iruka-san, Hokage-sama asked me to give your team this mission. This is a C-rank delivery mission: you are too deliver three of these scrolls to the Fire Daimyo-sama's court in the capital, Lord Makinawa-sama, who resides in the Ontambo Gai city and to Lord Momiji-sama from Hamaki city." Scarred jounin was thinking for several moments: his time might not really like to leave the village, but they were ninjas and needed to follow the orders. Plus, if everything went smooth during the mission, it will show the team that not always there will be such difficulties that they faced in the land of Waves.

"We accept this mission." Iruka said to the chuunin, before turning to his students. "Pack for a two weeks long mission. We will be leaving in three hours. Meet me at the southern gates. Dismissed." Three genins nodded and left the room after their jounin shunshin'ed away.

/** *** **\**  
**

In the early afternoon two days later team five finally saw the walls of the capital of the Fire country. From the distance, the city looked to be much bigger than Konoha was, but then again, Hidden Leaf village was still military settlement, while the capital was mostly for the civilian population... When the team approached the gates, a group of eight samurai stopped them.

"Halt. State your business in the capital." Samurai captain said in an imposing voice. Iruka gave the man their mission scroll. The samurai looked through the scroll and nodded, returning it to the scarred jounin. "Your identifications, please." Samurai collected the ID's from all four shinobi of the team five and checked them. "Everything is all right, you can enter." The captain said to the whole team, before addressing to Iruka specifically: "Kimba will escort you to the Daimyo's palace, shinobi-san." One of the samurai nodded and stepped forward.

"Follow me." He said.

"Thank you, Kimba-san. And good day for you all." Iruka said to samurais. "Let's go." He then addressed to his team...

* * *

The streets their samurai escort led them through were wide, laid out with paving-stone and with people and merchants on the every step... It took them an hour of walking to reach the walls that surrounded Daimyo's palace. They stopped in front of another samurai guard. Iruka took a message scroll from his pouch and gave it to one of the guards.

"Hokage-sama sends a message to Fire Daimyo-sama." The samurai nodded and opened the scroll, checking it for any kind of traps. Finding it to be just that, a message, the samurai nodded.

"The message will be passed to the Daimyo-sama. Do you need his reply?" Scarred jounin shook his head.

"No, we do not." The samurai guard nodded, accepting the answer. Kimba looked at Iruka.

"Shinobi-san, will you be leaving the capital now?" Jounin shook his head.

"No, we will stay at the hotel overnight." He replied, and then, looking at his students, added. "Konohagakure no Sato owns hotels at the important cities of the Fire country, where you can spend time resting for free, provided, you have your ID with you. I want you to remember, where such hotel is located in the capital." All the genins nodded, before Iruka led his team towards their destination. The hotel Iruka was talking about was a rather plain-looking three-store building in the center of the city with a large red kanji for fire on its facade. Inside the shinobi hotel too was a bit plain, but still had everything one would need to relax, including small indoors onsen... Needless to say that everyone, even Sai, though he didn't show that, were happy to spend the night there, instead of tents somewhere in the forest clearing...

/** *** **\**  
**

Delivery of the other two messages too went without any problems, and before long team five was back to Konoha. Iruka gave him a day of rest, and promised to up their training after that... After sleeping in till the midday on their free day, Naruto and Sachiko decided to have lunch at the barbeque restaurant Akimichi clan owned. Unfortunately or not, team ten – Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Choji and Yamanaka Ino under jounin-sensei Sarutobi Asuma – were there, and the only free table at the restaurant was next to their. Both Naruto and his white-haired teammate ordered some beef steak and apple juice, and while they were waiting for their food to arrive, they involuntary listened to the latest gossip Ino was retailing to her teammates.

"...And I heard from Forehead that they've completed C- turned B-rank mission, who knew that that slimy bandits had a rogue chuunin among them. And Sasuke-sama killed that ninja. He's so cool!.." Naruto wanted to yell that they were on what turned to be an A-rank mission, along with team eight, but Sachiko silenced him with a brief kiss on his lips.

"Shh... Ino's a gossip queen. Do you really want her to know that?" She asked the blond jinchuuriki, who was blushing from her kiss. He shook his head. "Good. So just stay quiet." They without any interest listened a bit more to Ino's gossip, as it was the loudest sound for them, before their orders arrived. Unfortunately, the platinum-blond kunoichi noticed what Sachiko ordered and decided to investigate...

"Hello there, Sachiko-chan." Ino said, completely ignoring Naruto. "I see you're eating this much meat. Is this you day off the diet?" The blond girl said leaning over the white-haired kunoichi. Sachiko sighed.

"Ino, I'm not dieting." She said simply, taking a bite of the roasted beef under Chinese sauce. Not a good thing to say to a gossip queen as Ino immediately asked her more questions.

"But... How? Your figure's so great, Sachiko-chan. How can you keep it like that without dieting? Maybe you'll tell me your secret, so that I can win Sasuke-sama's heart?" Unlike Sakura, Ino was at least clever enough to understand that Sachiko didn't want to be with the last Uchiha. The white-haired girl turned to look at Ino and deadpanned:

"I train." There was a pause. "Ino... If you want to be a good shinobi, you need to train. And if train a lot, you will be both strong and keep your figure no matter what you eat." Stars appeared in Ino's eyes as the platinum-blond thoughts wandered towards 'her' Sasuke-sama. "Speaking of training. Asuma-san." Sachiko address to the jounin of the team ten. "I know, you are a wind user." The man nodded. "Can I ask you for a few tip to help me with this?" The white-haired kunoichi asked, showing Asuma the stilettos Naruto gave her some time ago. Bearded jounin looked at her with some interest.

"You're a wind user too, Sachiko-chan?" He asked.

"My element is jinton, actually, but as it is based on earth and wind, so yes." Talking around Ino about such ninja stuff was safe as the platinum-blond kunoichi, who already returned to her seat, was airhead and paid no attention to others jutsu. If that other one wasn't Sasuke, of course...

"Jinton?" Asuma asked in surprise. "I heard that only Sandaime Tsuchikage's clan could use it... But that's besides the question. I will help you with channeling wind chakra though weapons if you pay our bill today." Sachiko beveled at this, but, knowing that she will benefit from such training greatly, decided to bargain.

"I'll pay for you, Asuma-san, Ino and Shikamaru." Seeing that the jounin wanted more from her, she hastily added. "And half of Choji's bill." This time bearded jounin nodded.

"Deal." He paused for moment, going over his plans for the next several days in his head. "You can come to the training ground ten tomorrow in the afternoon. If not, send me a message somehow, we will arrange you training at a later day." The white-haired kunoichi nodded.

"Thank you, Asuma-sensei." Naruto, who was all this time sitting quietly and eating his meat, looked at her, silently asking her a question 'why?'. Sachiko took a sip of her juice. "Naruto-kun, up to now I concentrated on my dust element and learned only a couple of useful jutsus for wind. I need to be better with my wind and earth elements if I want to be successful..." She made a pause. "Oh, by the way, will you teach me some of your doton jutsus, Naruto-kun?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded.

"Of course, Sachiko-chan." The white-haired kunoichi immediately wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a kiss. Somehow, this felt right for them.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." She said after they broke the kiss several seconds later.

/** *** **\**  
**

Later that day, jounins of the current genin teams were gathering for a meeting with the Hokage.

"But, Iruka-kohai!.." Certain silver-haired jounin moaned quite pathetically as he was dragged into the Hokage's office. Iruka sighed tiredly.

"Kakashi-senpai, you can't keep being late to important meetings if you know what's good for you." Scarred jounin said. When he finished, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, stood up up from his seat.

"Good day, ladies..." He said looking at the only female jounin present, Yuuhi Kurenai. "...And gentlemen, as you may know, chuunin exams are held at Konoha this year. So I gathered you there to ask you, which teams will you nominate. Let us begin." There was a long pause, before Asuma stepped forward and nominated his team ten. Then Maito Gai did the same for his 'youthful trio'. Kurenai followed the suit too, as did some other jounin-sensei. Finally, Kakashi stepped forward.

"The Kakashi led team seven: Ami, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke, under the name of Hatake Kakashi, I nominate them to take chuunin selection exams." He said, before returning to reading his orange book. Scarred jounin stepped forward.

"The Iruka led team five: Sai, Sachiko and Uzumaki Naruto, under the name of Umino Iruka, I nominate them to take chuunin selection exams." After finishing the short 'speech' Iruka stepped back into the line. Kakashi looked at him.

"I thought that the only promising genin on your team was that girl, Sachiko, Iruka-kohai, and even she wasn't the best in the academy. Are you really going to send your brats into the exam this time?" Iruka sighed. For someone who used 'underneath the underneath' principle so much, Kakashi seemed to take academy reports by the face value.

"You might be surprised, what my team can do, Kakashi-senpai. They might not pass the examination, but it should be a good training for them." He answered quietly.

"You nominated you team even though you don't really think any of them will pass?" Silver-haired jounin asked. Iruka said nothing. By this time, all other jounin-sensei were finished, and Hokage sent his assistant chuunin to them forms for their genin. When it was done, Hokage adjourned the meeting and dismissed jounins.

/** *** **\**  
**

Next day happened to be sunny, but cold and windy with small clouds in the sky. Iruka trained them till the lunchtime. He and two of his stone clones were overseeing their progress, as Naruto was working on conjunction of his earth-style ninjutsus with his taijutsu style, Sachiko was trying a new fuuton jutsu and Sai was training with his ninja-to. At noon Iruka called his team together. When all three genins of the team five were there, the scarred jounin produced three pieces of paper from his pouch.

"Naruto, Sachiko, Sai, remember the last C-rank mission we took?" Having all three genins nod, the jounin continued. "I think I can tell you something about the messages as this regards you too now. Remember, that under normal circumstances you are forbidden to disclose such information." He stressed. "Anyway, as you know, every six month, there is a chuunin selection exam held at different hidden villages. This time, chuunin exam will be held there, at Konoha. The messages we delivered to the Fire Lord and his vicegerents, were the invitations to the final part of the exam." Iruka said.

"You said, this concerns us too. How's that?" Sachiko asked.

"Well..." The jounin gave each of his students a form. "I felt that you are good enough and nominated you to take the exam. All that you'll have to do is to fill this forms and bring them to the room 301 at shinobi academy next Friday." He made a small pause. "Of course, you may not fill the form and take the exam later." All three genins nodded. "Unfortunately, Hokage-sama asked me to take a mission this morning, so I'll leave the village in the afternoon and be away till Wednesday. So, you'll be training on your own in the mean time." Iruka said. "Now, remember, whether you chose to take the exam or not, I'll be proud of you... I think I will go now. Team, dismissed." And the scarred jounin disappeared via shunshin. After a short discussion, all three genins of the team five decided that they'll participate in the exam...

* * *

In the afternoon Sachiko went to train with Asuma, while Naruto stayed at the training ground and worked on his doton jutsus some more. Sai just disappeared and was most likely drawing somewhere... In the evening, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and his white-haired teammate had a dinner together at their house. After that, they decided to go call it a day as they had a difficult training planned for tomorrow... Naruto was surprised, when Sachiko knocked on his door.

"Yea?" He asked. His surprise only increased when the white-haired girl entered his room, already dressed in her oversized T-shirt she slept in and caring her pillow with her.

"Naru-kun... It's cold in my room. Can I sleep with you tonight?" This partially was true as she had the biggest room on the floor, which had two walls of windows and was on the north-west side of the house. But the excuse was rather poor as they slept in much colder environment during their missions outside the village. Still, Naruto nodded.

"It's not much space there, but OK." He said, blushing bright red, edging away from the wall so that the girl could lay down there. Sachiko threw her pillow there before laying down next to the blond.

"Thank you." She said, before kissing him a good night.

* * *

Naruto woke up first early the next morning. He ended sleeping on his left side with Sachiko behind him, holding onto him possessively, with her arms around his midsection and her legs wrapped around his right one. And despite two layers of clothes between them, Naruto now knew that his white-haired teammate had a pair of nice, and sizable for her not yet thirteen years of age, upper B-cup breasts, normally hidden by her ninja attire... And as much as he wanted to just stay in bed with Sachiko, they had a plans for today. Maybe he was still very much sleepy, but he turned around in her embrace and kissed her. Surprisingly, this easily woke her up, and she returned the kiss, bringing it to the level they'd never reached before.

"Good mornin', Sachiko-chan." Naruto said, as they broke the kiss, blushing profusely. Sachiko untangled herself from him and sat up on the bed.

"Good morning you too, Naru-kun." She said and then stretched forth bending her body back, making her T-shirt, oversized it may be, give him a glimpse of her waistline with her panties and some of her flat stomach to Naruto, making him blush more... Absentmindedly, the blond shinobi noted that her skin was no longer pale, somewhat even tanned now, and it seemed that she had no tan lines... "I slept so well tonight..." Sachiko purred as she got out if his bed. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki had to agree, sleeping together with her felt good... "Can we sleep together from now on?" She asked, making him choke a little.

"Sachiko-chan..." He said after he cleared his throat. "You... you really... want that?" The white-haired girl nodded eagerly. "I guess... if we permute the furniture there, we can move her bed into the room and make a double bed ...for us." Sachiko all but pushed him back onto the bed, before giving him one hell of a kiss.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Naruto-kun!" She said rapidly. Then there was a short pause as the two were looking at each other blushing bright red. Then the Kyuubi jinchuuriki broke the silence.

"Sachiko-chan... We live together... We ...kiss and hug... And now we slept in one bed... Does this make us ...you know, boyfriend and girlfriend?" He asked, blushing a deeper shade of red. The question was more than valid, as up to now they considered each other to be just best friends... Sachiko looked into his eyes.

"Is that a proposition, Naru-kun?" The waited for him to blush even more, before diving him a hot kiss. "Of course, I'll be your girlfriend, silly!" These words were followed by another kiss. "Now, I remember, someone promised to teach me a couple of earth-style jutsus." The white-haired kunoichi say in a teasing voice...

* * *

After the quick breakfast, the duo headed through the village towards one of the less used training grounds. But halfway there, when they were walking through one of the central streets, they heard something happened in one of the adjoining streets. Deciding to investigate, they found a large boy in black clothes, a couple of years older than them, with something large, wrapped with bandages, strapped to his back holding a young boy, whom Naruto identified as Hokage's grandson, Konohamaru, by the collar. There also was a girl in white battle kimono with her hair made into four tail with a large fan on her back standing indifferently by the black-clad boy. On the other side of the street, there were a boy and a girl of Konohamaru's age, Haruno Sakura and Ami. Up in the tree, sitting on a thick branch, there was Sasuke himself. As Naruto never saw the girl with a fan and the boy in black, he decided that they were from the other village and came to take part in the chuunin exam.

"I suggest, you let Hokage's grandson go." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, making the black-clad boy turn around and send a glare at him and Sachiko. Naruto noticed Suna hitae-ate the boy wore.

"Great, they keep popping up from every corner." The boy said, making Naruto sigh.

"Even though Konoha and Suna are allied, the relationship between the villages is strained. I suggest, you do as my teammate says, or there may be an international incident of yours creation." Sachiko said. To make sure that the boy in black listened to them this time, Naruto send a wave of concentrated killing intent towards him. And because of the malevolent yoki he contained, Naruto could create at lest jounin level of KI... At the same time Sasuke decided to intervene too and threw a stone at the boy's arm that held Konohamaru. So, for Sakura, Ami and Sasuke it seemed that it was Uchiha himself, who freed the little boy. The said little boy immediately ran to his friends, while Sasuke's two fangirls cheered for their 'hero', who jumped down onto the street.

"I'm sorry. This is our first time in Konoha and my brother seems to be a little jumpy because of that. I'll make sure that this won't happen again." The kunoichi with the battle fan said to Naruto and Sachiko. She was about to berate her brother, but a redhead with large black circles under his eyes, too with a Suna hitae-ate, appeared in swirl of sand behind Naruto. His arrival made two other Sand ninjas stiffen.

"Kankuro, you are a disgrace for our village." The red-haired boy, who was wearing black and light-gray clothes and had a big gourd of sand strapped to his back, said in an absolutely emotionless tone. The kunoichi was about to say something, but... "Temari, shut up, I will deal with him myself." This made Kankuro cry from fear.

"Y-Yes, Gaara." Temari said, barely containing her fear of this ninja.

"Now..." Gaara looked at each of leaf ninja present. "What is your name, the strong one?" He asked. As Naruto and Sasuke were standing almost on the same line for him, Sasuke, of course, assumed that Suna ninja was asking him.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke!" He said proudly.

"Not you, you do not interest me. I asked the blond one." Gaara elaborated, making Uchiha boy seethe with anger: how dare this stranger call him weak? On the other side, Gaara's comment about interest made both Kankuro and Temari look at Naruto, like he was going to die at any moment.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki introduced himself.

"Sabaku no Gaara." The redhead did the same. "I hope that I'll get a chance to fight you." There was a short pause. "Temari, Kankuro, let's go." And the Suna trio disappeared... Sasuke stormed towards Naruto, fully intent to prove his superiority to the blond, his cheerleaders in his stead, but as neither Naruto nor Sachiko wanted to deal with them right now, the blond shinobi flashed them with his most powerful KI. When Sasuke and his fangirls unfroze, no members of the team five were seen in the street...

* * *

That's all, folks. **Read **and **Review**!


	9. Chuunin selection exams, part I

Hello, everyone, I'm back with a new chapter! Enjoy!

*** Review response**:**  
eclipseX**, Umm... As **Hakkyou no Yami** said about dominating the exams, the Forest of death won't be... canonical. Like what I've come up with, or hate it, but their time in the forest will be 6 hours and 17 minutes.**  
nobother**, **OBSERVER01**, **Clemerl**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Sephieroth**, thank you!  
**Reishin Amara**, the grin is rather small now, compared to what it will be in 'several months'... *wink*  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, Sai isn't the strongest fighter of the team, true, but even in "_**Naruto**_" ninjas aren't only about being machines of large-scale destruction. As for Iruka-Kakashi rivalry... I'll try to think of something.**  
Still Not Dead Yet**, you are right. I based Naruto's precognition on spider sense ( (c) Marvel) somewhat. But I gave my version somewhat plausible explanation, instead of the ability 'just being there'. And I like Ino (she won't be included in any of the main pairings (if there will be more than Naruto/Sachiko)), so I'm breaking her off being fangirl earlier.  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, I've answered your ...question via review reply.

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Kage bushin** - (A-rank) Shadow clone - creates solid chakra-made copy of user (to be destroyed shadow clone must get moderate damage). Shadow clones have perfect copy of user's mind and memory. When dispelled, shadow clones return experience of their 'life' to user. Shadow clones split user's chakra by clones number +1 (if you create 3 clones you'll have only 1/4 of chakra left (minus chakra needed to create clones)) that's why they are mostly used for information gathering.  
**Doton: toge ryudou** - (B-rank) Earth style: spiked land - My original ninjutsu. Does exactly what its name suggests: turn a big patch of land in front of the user into stone spikes.  
**Kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object.  
**Jinton: jinryuukamu** - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: dust dragon bite - creates a dragon head from the dust. the head will fly forward and byte the first thing in its way.  
**Chouju giga: doragon** - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing: dragon - allows to animate ink drawings, specifically dragon in this case.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 8: Chuunin selection exams, part I**

The training in the last week before the exam was quite productive for the team five. And while Sai concentrated on his general fitness and his skills with ninja-to, Sachiko adapted the '**kaze no yaiba**' jutsu, so that she could launch it from her stilettos when the wind chakra was applied to them. This made white-haired kunoichi to be much more dangerous opponent in an armed combat too. She also learned two earth-style attack ninjutsu and a simplest wall from Naruto. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki himself finally managed to successfully use iron skin technique in the fight, thus becoming the real juggernaut now. All this made Iruka be sure that his team will do good at the exams...

~/ ***** **\~

The morning, when chuunin selection exams would start, Naruto woke in a bit unusual way. Sure, he was used to sleeping with his girlfriend together in one bed, and they both enjoyed it, but usually it was Sachiko who slept with her arms around him, pushing him into her front. Today, though, they had their roles reversed, and thus the problem of Naruto's morning wood pressed into her buttocks appeared. The blond shinobi tried to get up without disturbing her, but failed as his movements woke her up too. He fully expected her to yell at him for being pervert, but instead Sachiko rubbed her bum into his erection, purring softly at the sensation, before finally opening her eyes. She saw what time it was now, and almost jumped from the bed, fully concentrated on getting ready to take the exam now.

"Get up, Naru-kun! We don't have time!" She said loudly as she removed the oversized T-shirt she slept in right in front of him. She then threw on smaller white T-shirt that stopped at her belly button; it was followed by her dark-gray shorts, with the kunai and her stilettos' holsters and a pouch already attached to them. The white-haired girl finished dressing by putting black leather jacket, leaving it unzipped though, and fingerless gloves of similar material on – it was one of the widely-known secrets that when earth chakra was channeled through leather, it became a good light armor... Finally, she made most of her hair onto the ponytail, leaving only few locks on each side of her face.

"You are beautiful..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki breathed out, admiring her new looks. He too had just finished dressing, wearing dark-gray leather waistcoat over blue T-shirt, and black pants. As he didn't use weapons as much as Sachiko did, he only had two holsters for kunai and a pouch on him... He too, as his girlfriend insisted, changed his looks for the exam.

"Thank you." Sachiko said, before giving him a quick kiss and disappearing from the bedroom... After the quick, but filling breakfast, the duo raced to the academy.

* * *

They ended arriving there in about twenty five minutes before the exam would start. Sai was already waiting there, drawing something in his notebook. After the members of the team five said 'good morning', to each other, they entered the academy. They reached the second floor when they saw lots of genin trying to enter the room with nameplate reading '301'.

"Correct me if I am wrong, Sachiko-chan, but wasn't room 301 on the third floor?" Naruto asked quietly, so that only she and Sai could hear him. The white-haired kunoichi nodded, as did Sai.

"You are right." She said. "Let's go" And the team continued on their way to the real room 301. When they finally reached it – and it was the biggest auditory of the academy – Iruka-sensei was standing in front of the auditory's doors.

"Good morning." The scarred jounin said. "I'm happy to see you all here. After all, the chuunin exams, first tests at least, can be taken only by a team... Anyway, I'm here to wish you all the best luck as since the moment you enter this room, you will be on your own. Do your best, and remember, that I'm proud that I've taught you."

"Thank you, sensei." Sachiko said.

"Don't worry, we will show everyone what a good teacher you are!" Naruto added. "We will pass these tests!" Iruka shook his head at his blond student's proclamation, as the trio entered the auditory...

* * *

The auditory was a giant room with many many desks, most of which were occupied by ninja from the foreign Hidden villages. Out of their batch, only team eight was there, but as none of the team five members had good friends there, they didn't do more than say 'hello'. Sai quickly disappeared into the mass of other genins, finding himself a seat somewhere, and continuing drawing... Naruto leaned against the wall in the corner next to the doors, and Sachiko leaned into him, having her boyfriend wrap his arms around her...

A couple of minutes later Suna trio arrived. Naruto and Gaara nodded to each other, but no words were said... Then team ten arrived. Sachiko noticed that Ino now had extra holsters and bigger pouch on her, meaning that the platinum-blond girl took the advice seriously and was trying to become a strong kunoichi now... Then a team of weirdos in white bodysuits from the Hidden Rain entered the auditory, followed closely by another team from Konoha: a boy with big eyebrows in green spandex suit, a brunette in Chinese-style clothes with her hair made into two buns, and a Hyuuga boy... Finally, just a couple of minutes before the exam would start, team seven arrived... Well, arrived Sasuke, dragging his fan-girls, who were hanging on each on his arms, much to the boy's annoyance... Seeing her crush, Ino calmly walked towards him, trying to show some restrain, as she remembered Sachiko's words about being annoying.

"Already giving up, Ino-pig?" Sakura asked. The platinum-blond kunoichi gave her rival a glare.

"Hello Sasuke-kun, nice to see you at the exam too." She said to the Uchiha boy. Much to Sakura's and Ami's annoyance, Sasuke was more tolerating to Ino now, than he was to them, but, still, the dark-haired boy only nodded as a 'hello'.

"What have you done to my Sasuke-sama?" Sakura yelled, making almost everyone in the auditory look at them.

"No, he is mine, forehead!" Ami inserted as loudly. But before the cat-fight could start, team eight, cleared the air a bit, as Kiba called the reunion of the rookie twelve. Then a gray-haired teen in glasses approached team, asking if it was their first time taking the exam... Neither Naruto nor Sachiko paid much attention to them, until Sasuke called:

"Tell me about Rock Lee, Gaara of the Sand and Uzumaki Naruto." The gray-haired teen, named Yakushi Kabuto, sighed.

"You know their names, it's no fun." He said, before taking three ninja cards from his deck. "Village guests first... Sabaku no Gaara, twelve years old – just like you" The gray-haired teen inserted "Genin of Hidden Sand village, so I can't tell you about his skills anything. He did forty two D-ranks, thirteen C-ranks and a B-rank. It is said that he returned from every mission without even a scratch." Kabuto read from the card. "Now, Rock Lee... He is a year older than you. His jounin-sensei is Maito Gai and his teammates are Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. Lee-san has almost jounin-level taijutsu, speed and strength, but he is absolutely lacking in other areas... He had completed sixty three D-ranks and fifteen C-ranks." Sasuke muttered something under his breath. "Uzumaki Naruto... He is twelve years old, like you. His skills are..." Kabuto had to stop reading as Naruto's kunai pierced the card in his hands, destroying whatever sealing array powered it.

"That is a confidential information." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki stated pulling the kunai back, along with the card, by the wire attached to the blade's handle. Kabuto gave a glare to the blond jinchuuriki, but said nothing, instead giving general information about this year's exam to the rookies. Somehow, gray-haired teen managed to hurt Oto team's pride, but before any real fight could have started, the auditory was flooded with KI, coming from large man in black cloak and bandana on his scarred face, who was standing in front of two dozens of chuunins in gray suits.

"Listen here, maggots!" The man roared. "There will be no fighting without my permission, and even then killing moves are forbidden. Is tat clear?" The team from the Hidden Sound – and everyone else – nodded. "Now. I'm Morino Ibiki, and I'll be your proctor for the first test! Come here one by one and draw a paper from the box..." Ibiki gestured to the box one of the chuunins held. "The number you get will tell where you will sit."

* * *

It took some time, but finally everyone was seated. Naruto happened to sit next to the youth in green spandex – Rock Lee – in the third row. Sai somehow ended on the other side of the same row while Sachiko was somewhere in the back, next to Suna kunoichi, Temari. Ibiki went on about the rules of the test, which could be summed up to: you have ten points; for every wrong answer you lose a point; you have to answer at least one question correctly; each member of your team should answer at least one question correctly too; if you get caught cheating, you lose two points.

'_Does he want us to cheat?_' Naruto, thought. Sachiko, Sai and many others had similar thoughts. 'B_ut he wants us to do it unnoticed. It's like information gathering mission – if you get caught, you lose._' Ibiki gave the signal, and genins turned the paper, finding out what the questions they had to answer were. '_Damn! No normal genin should be able to answer even half of these!_' Suddenly Naruto saw a thin stream of ink going onto the desk in front of him. The ink flowed to the paper and 'wrote' the message in the corner: "With this what one writes, all of us will see. You will have to rewrite the answers in pencil, though – they will check it too. I will cancel the jutsu in an hour." Then the ink flowed to the tip of his pencil. It took all of Naruto's willpower not to shout to Sai that he was genius...

* * *

By the end of the hour, Sachiko had given three answers to her teammates. Naruto had cheated from a man in front if him another one without being caught. Sai answered one too, meaning that the team five had answers to five questions out of the nine given... Then Sai canceled the jutsu and his ink disappeared from Naruto's and Sachiko's papers, leaving them an hour and a half to write some answers for themselves... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, not wanting to risk getting caught and losing point, as he was unable to answer any of the questions left himself, thought about what happened just before the test started instead.

'_Information about missions completed isn't exactly public knowledge even in Konoha. In villages like Suna this info is guarded much better. How did Kabuto get all that information?_' The only answer Naruto could come up with was that the gray-haired teen was hiding some secrets about himself... "Ibiki-san, one of the Leaf genins, Yakushi Kabuto possesses information no normal genin should have access to. He might be not who he seems." The blond shinobi wrote in the corner of his paper...

"Alright, maggots!" The proctor roared to the auditory, which now was missing at least a half of the teams. "It's time for the tenth question!" Indeed, it was only fifteen minutes before the end of the test. "But before I will ask it, some more rules should be announced..." And Ibiki told those rules, which resulted in more teams quitting. "And now... To those who remained in the room, I have only one thing to say... YOU PASS!" The man roared with a small laugh, shocking many genins. The next several minutes Ibiki spent explaining the true purpose of the tenth questions, showing more of his scars along the way... Then, at one moment jounin suddenly jumped back a little, and the next moment something crashed through the window. Four kunai shot from this something pinning it to the floor and ceiling, revealing it to be a purple-haired kunoichi in a brown trench-coat and a banner that read "Meet the proctor of the second test, sexy and deadly Anko Mitarashi." The kunoichi looked at the auditory.

"Sixty six? You passed sixty six? Are you getting soft in you age?" She almost shouted at Ibiki, who didn't even flinch.

"Anko." He said with a small glare. "You are early." The scarred man paused for a moment. "And it seams that this time genins are much more promising." The purple-haired kunoichi shrugged, before looking back at the nineteen teams that passed the first test.

"Now, maggots, you have no time to celebrate this – the second test starts soon, follow me!" And she started waking towards the doors of the auditory.

* * *

Anko led twenty two teams that passed Ibiki's test towards the training area 44. Many genin eyed the silent great trees behind the fence with all types of warning signs on it with unease. Which the purple-haired kunoichi immediately noticed. Finally they stopped in front of a small post where two chuunins were sitting. Anko turned to the exam participants.

"I see many of you are already working their way towards the understanding why this are is also called 'the forest of death'." Several nervous gasps could have been heard. "And this is also where the second test of your exam will be. This is survival test... So, now, let me tell you the rules. Each team will be given a scroll before the test. Eleven will get the 'heaven scroll', eleven – the 'earth scroll'. No one but your team will know which scroll you have. To pass this test, you must bring both scrolls to the tower in the center of the forest within one hundred and twenty hours from the beginning of the test..."

"But that means... Half of the teams will fail?" Sakura asked nervously. Anko gave her a sadistic smirk.

"No. At very least half of the teams will fail. I bet, no more that eight or nine will reach the tower." The pink-haired kunoichi shrank and tried to hide behind Sasuke.

"Five days? What will we eat there?" Now it was Chouji, who asked the question. The proctor looked at him and chuckled.

"There's a lot of food in the forest. Just try not to become food yourself." There was a short pause. "Anyway, back to the rules. You will fail the test if you don't reach the tower with both scrolls within the time limit, one or more of your teammates are wounded or crippled – yes, killing is allowed in this test – or you open your scroll. And before we start, I want everyone to sign there papers." Anko said, gesturing towards a stack of papers of her chuunin assistants was holding. "There are the forms that basically say I'm not responsible if something happens to you in the forest. Those who don't sign will be automatically disqualified." After the forms were signed and collected, each team was given a scroll. Team five happened to get one of the 'heaven scrolls'. In secret from the chuunins, Sai managed to mark each of the five 'earth scrolls' left with his ink... When all teams finally had a scroll, each was led by a chuunin – those form the first test, joined the two were there originally – to a different gate.

The second test started at one past morning, and, thanks to Sai's ink, team five located their 'earth scroll' within first thirty minutes. One of the Konoha teams, none of the team five members knew had it. So they decided to act according to an improvised assault method...

* * *

Three genin were surprised, when another team suddenly jumped at the from the bushes.

"Rookies." The leader of the team, Shibire, stated, when he remembered who their opponents were. "They even don't know how to attack those who are stronger than them... Let's show what the real ninja can do!" He said and his two teammates nodded in agreement... They got their first surprise when they found out that all three of their opponents were using absolutely identical fighting style... Those were solid clones of the same person.

"Something's wrong." One of the other two genin said, as if feeling the real attack that was about to happen.

"**Jinton: jinryuukamu!**" Female voice said from behind the trees, and a dust in a form of a Chinese dragon attacked the unlucky team.

"**Chouju giga: doragon!**" Two images came alive from Sai's scroll and joined their dust brother in the attack.

"**Doton: toge ryoudo!**" Naruto created a ring of thick sharp spikes around their target, so that they couldn't dodge the attacks of his teammates easily... One of the tree genin, Minoji, they attacked was fast enough to use **kawarimi** to get away from the three dragons, but his two teammates weren't as lucky and were brought down.

"W-Who are you? S-Show yourself!" Minoji said, preparing to fight his team's attackers... He was very surprised to see that his team was attacked by exactly that rookie team, the clones were impersonating.

"Give us your scroll and we will leave." Naruto demanded. The genin in front of them happened to be clever enough to understand that he alone stood no chance against these three, and just pointed at the downed team leader... Without any more words the team collected the 'earth scroll' they needed and disappeared into the forest.

* * *

Naruto, Sachiko and Sai reached the tower at a little past seven in the evening – they ran into the large snake that was a summon on their way towards the tower, and were delayed for about an hour because of that. Entering the tower, they found themselves in a hall with no visible door and a panel with a riddle across from the door they used to enter this hall.

"I think, we should open the scrolls." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said.

"But, Anko-san said that we will fail the test if we open them." Interjected Sai.

"Our task was to bring both scrolls to the tower, which we've already done. And since we can't see any other way to continue, opening the scrolls seems to be the best option." Reasoned Naruto.

"I agree with that." Said Sachiko. And so they opened the scrolls... There was a poof of smoke.

"Well done maggots!" Ibiki's voice roared from the smoke. "You'd have beaten the previous record by fifteen minutes if you were the first team to arrive. Congratulations. And nice trick with the ink during my test."

"You saw us and didn't take points?" Sachiko asked in a small surprise.

"It was above chuunin level, so you were counted as those who cheated undetected... It actually took _me_ twenty minutes to understand what it was." The proctor of the first test did a step towards team five. "You are the team under Iruka-san?" Three genins nodded. "Hokage-sama asked me something that concerns you directly. Follow me, I will show you where you will stay until this test finishes, and we will talk there."

* * *

That's all, folks. Leave me a **review**!


	10. Chuunin selection exams, part II

Hello, everyone, here's the new chapter. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, only for you I will answer such question. Naruto will (normally) be able to use only doton. He will train in using Kyuubi's yoki and, seeing that in this story sealed Kyuubi is nothing more that a mindless semiconscious mass of yoki, Naruto will be able to master it rather quickly. While using yoki, Naruto will be able to use youton and a bit of katon as well. Is this enough for an explanation?  
**nobother**, **eclipseX**, **doragonculaw**, **OBSERVER01**, **Reishin Amara**,** Hanzo of the Salamander**, thank you!  
**Elemental Dragon Swordman**, in preliminaries only one fight will be the same. In finals - two. But why am I telling you this? The whole thing is written just below.  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, Kabuto will be involved in the discussion, but only on the side note.

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu. Has several variations, including suna shunshin.  
**Bushin **- (E-rank) - creates illusionary copy of user.  
**Chouju giga: shimure**- (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing: pride - allows to animate ink drawings, specifically a group of lions in this case.  
**Doton: iwa bushin** - (B-rank) Earth style: stone clone - (credit for this jutsu goes to PalXan) creates stone-made solid copy of user. Stone clones are physically strong and have their own mind (although very weak so are most effectively used as a 'puppets'). Stone clones are easily affected by genjutsu. They are pretty hard to destroy physically, but have limited lifetime (the more chakra they are given when created, the longer their 'life' is). To create stone clone user must be near any sourse of material for clone (stone/brick-made walls, stone blocks, stones, sandy/rocky ground etc.)  
**Zankuha** - (D-rank) Decapitating air waves - weaponised waves of air pressure.  
**Doton: ganchuusou** - (unknown rank) Earth style: rock pillar spear - creates earth spear(s).  
**Sabaku soso** - (unknown rank) Sand funereal - Gaara's sand crushes its captive.  
**Gatsuga **- (C-rank) Dual piercing fang - Kiba and Akamaru turn into gray 'tornados' and attack their target.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 9: Chuunin selection exams, part II**

The room Ibiki led was simple, with bare concrete walls and two two tier beds with simple mattresses, four small wardrobes and a door leading to the bathroom. But for the four days this will do. The proctor of the first test sat on one bed's lower tier, while three genins sat across from him on the other bed.

"OK, now." Ibiki started. "First, Naruto, I got your message and I agree with you. One of the ANBU operatives will investigate this case, but that's not what I wanted to discuss." He said.

"What is it then, Ibiki-san?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked.

"I was getting to it." The large man said. "When Iruka-san passed your team, he classified you as a potential battlefield reconnaissance cell and asked Hokage-sama to see whether I can teach one of you basic interrogation techniques." Both Naruto and Sachiko were surprised: Iruka up to now trained them as a front line fighting team, so they thought that they will be one, not some kind of specialized cell... Seeing their faces, Ibiki roared with laughter. "I see. Iruka-san hasn't told you his vision of your team. But then again, he didn't know whether I – or anyone else who specializes in interrogation – will agree to teach you... Anyway, from the information about you three I collected, I gather that Naruto and Sachiko are more of the fighters while Sai's skills are honed more for information gathering and redistribution?"

"That will be correct." The pale boy confirmed with a nod.

"In this case it will be logical to teach you, Sai, into the interrogator, but I can see that right now you lack the understanding of emotions and ability to play with others' minds for that. So I will say this: in four months, I will meet with you again and we will decide, whom I will take as an apprentice, if I will take one at all." The team five nodded.

"Thank you, Ibiki-san." Sachiko said. The proctor of the first test nodded.

"OK... This will be all I wanted to tell you..." After saying that, the jounin stood up and walked towards the door, only to stop with his hand on door handle. "Oh, I forgot to tell you that this tower has a mess that is located in the basement." Genins nodded: the mess will save them quite a lot of rations as they will have to wait for four days until the next test. Giving the three a curt nod as a 'goodbye', Ibiki left their room...

Later, in the mess, the team five found out that the Sand trio was the first team to complete the second test. Down there, Gaara gave a small nod to Naruto, reminding the Kyuubi jinchuuriki about his desire to fight him, but the interaction between two teams didn't go past this point...

For the next two days these two teams were the only ones who completed the test, but in the afternoon of the third day, team eight from Konoha arrived. But still team five was mostly by themselves... This changed a bit when a day later the Ino-Shika-Cho trio arrived, and the platinum-blond kunoichi decided to annoy Sachiko with her new experiences... Couple of hours after team ten, the only team from the Hidden Sound, that passed the first test, reached the tower, followed closely by the 'team Gai'... Two hours before the time for the second test would be up, team seven and Kabuto's team, as well as a team from the Hidden Rain, joined those, who passed this portion of the chuunin selection exams...

* * *

When the time was up, chuunin assistants called the teams that passed the second test to the big arena in the center of the tower. Once everyone was there, Hokage gave the speech about the true purpose of the chuunin exams and answered some questions genins had. Then a sickly-looking jounin **shunshin**'ed into the arena in front of Hokage.

"Please, allow me to take from there, Hokage-sama." The man said and at Sarutobi's nod, he continued. "I'm Hayate and I'll be the proctor of the third test." The man coughed. "But before that, seeing that so many of you passed the second test, we will have preliminaries that will be simple one on one fights. If you don't feel well or just want to quit after the previous test, say now." He coughed again. Kabuto raised his hand, much to Naruto's surprise, as the silver-haired teen seemed to be alright. Then the Kyuubi jinchuuriki saw Ibiki nod to himself, too trying to understand Kabuto's reasoning... After the silver-haired teen was removed from the list of contestants – he was the only one who did quit – the large tableau appeared on the wall. "On this screen names of two ninja that will fight in the preliminary match will appear. As for the rules..." Hayate coughed again. "...Killing your opponent is forbidden and I can stop the match at any time I want. After the match is stopped, no fighting is allowed. Is that clear?" There was a chorus of 'hai' from genin contestants. "Let's start then." Names flashed on the screen for some time, before stopping on the two. "Our first match will be Haruno Sakura vs. Sachiko, both from Konohagakure no Sato." The proctor of the third test coughed once more. "I would ask the rest of you to move to the balconies." All but two genins quickly disappeared from the arena floor – Naruto, though, didn't forget to kiss Sachiko a good luck. "Are you ready?" Hayate asked.

"Yes, ready to lose, whore?" Sakura taunted. "After all you stand no chance against me as I trained with Sasuke-sama." The white-haired kunoichi simply ignored the banshee, and nodded to the proctor. Up on the balconies, Naruto had to use a lot of self-control not to jump down and punish Sakura for badmouthing his girlfriend.

"You may start then." Hayate said, before disappearing into the background. The pink-haired girl immediately charged at Sachiko with her fist raised for the strike, but her opponent made no move. Now completely sure of her victory, Sakura tried to punch the white-haired kunoichi's midsection, but only whimpered rather pathetically when her fist collided with the chakra-enchanted leather jacked. Surprised, Sakura did a step back, rubbing her fist... Sachiko raised her eyebrow, before commenting:

"That was useless." The pink-haired girl sent her a glare.

"Shut up, whore." And she attacked again, this time trying to hit Sachiko's face with her right foot. The attack was stopped by the white-haired girl with just two fingers. Then she wrapped her hand around Sakura's ankle and threw the banshee away. Groaning from her rough landing, Sakura stood up. "You stand no chance for Sasuke-sama's heart, whore, as I will show his who's the best by defeating you." In response Sachiko only shrugged. She could 'see' that Sakura really was good for nothing and had no real chance of winning this match. Too bad, Sakura couldn't see it... "**Bunshin no jutsu!**" The banshee announced loudly as three illusive copies of her appeared. Then all four charged at Sachiko, who simply followed the movements of the one with the shadow, easily blocking the fist to her head. Sakura was so surprised that her attack failed completely that she lost concentration over the clones and they disappeared. "H-How?"

"Academy clones do not have shadows." The white-haired girl said, before simply vanishing from Sakura's sight. Moment later Sachiko reappeared behind pink-haired girl and pressed the stiletto to banshee's neck, while holding girl's both hands with her free one. "Game over." Hayate appeared in front of the girls.

"Seeing that Haruno Sakura is unable to continue..." The proctor coughed. "The winner of the first match is Sachiko." The white-haired kunoichi returned the stiletto to its holster and walked away to join her boyfriend on the balcony... Once both fighters of the first match left the arena, the screen showed the next pair. "Will Tsurugi Misumi from Konohagakure no Sato and Kinuta Dosu for Otogakure no Sato come down for the second match?"

* * *

The second match wasn't much of an interest as it mostly consisted of Dosu dodging Misumi's attempts to grab him to use his special jutsu while sending back sound-based attacks every chance her got... Eventually, Dosu's sound attacks deteriorated Misumi's control over his body to the point where older genin could no longer stand on his own, thus marking the Oto ninja as the victor of the match.

Then there was the match between Kagari from the Hidden Rain and Akimichi Chouji from Konoha. The ...big-boned boy clearly dominated his opponent in taijutsu and moved fast enough to never let Kagari switch to long-ranged ninjutsu. Needless to say, Chouji won his match, and did it quite stylishly too... After the Ame-nin was carried away by the medical team, the forth match was announced.

* * *

"Will Akado Yoroi and Sai, both from Konohagakure no Sato, come down for the next match?" Hayate asked, before coughing for god-knows-what time this day. When both fighters were on the arena floor and facing each other, the proctor asked his next question: "Are you two ready?" At their nods, he wagged his hand and called 'Hajime!' before disappearing into the background... Not wasting any time, Yoroi ran through a set of handseals, before activating strange blue glow around his right hand. The moment that happened, the older genin charged at Sai, but the pale boy skillfully evaded him, while fishing a scroll out of his pouch. Then, after dodging another attack, he opened it and threw it into the air, revealing its contents to be many drawn lions. This made everyone, who wasn't familiar with pale boy's fighting style, raise an eyebrow.

"**Chouju giga: shimure****!**" A good dozen of pictures came alive and jumped from the scroll onto the arena and immediately attacked Yoroi, simply swarming him with their number... When Sai canceled his jutsu, the older genin was lying without conscious with many tears on his clothes and visible skin.

"As Akado Yoroi is unable to continue fighting, the winner of forth match is Sai." Said Hayate, appearing next to the defeated ninja... The team five congratulated Sai on his victory when he joined them up on the balcony, just like they did with Sachiko not so long before... The proctor, once medics carried Yoroi away, announced the fifth match: Yamanaka Ino vs. Ami. The moment the purple-haired genin stepped on the arena, she immediately began bragging about how good she was compared to her opponent, clearly showing that Sakura's example of what can happen if you overestimate yourself didn't teach her anything. Unlike Sachiko, though, the platinum-blond kunoichi retorted, which almost escalated into verbal duel, but Hayate stopped the girls by asking if they were ready. After the both girls nodded, he started the match and once again disappeared into the background.

"I _watched_ Sasuke-sama train!.." Continued bragging Ami. "You stand no chance against me, pig!" Ino sweatdropped. Was she really like that too? Well, not anymore. Asuma-sensei did a good job of weakening her fangirl tendencies. Plus when she met Sachiko at the Akimichi clan restaurant, she could see in white-haired girl's every movement that she was strong and trained hard. And despite being straight, at least Ino thought she was, she found Sachiko to be an attractive and sexy girl... And now, just after the week of training, the platinum-blond could easily tell that she was stronger than ever before. And no need to keep with sometimes ridiculous diets was a great plus in her book too; Ino liked eating tasty foods...

"Bring it on." Ami blindly charged at her opponent, and was quite surprised when Ino sidestepped her fist, well, she was more surprised by the ease Ino did it with. Using purple-haired girl's surprise to her advantage, the platinum-blond kunoichi kneed Ami to the stomach, making her fall onto the floor. Groaning in pain, Ami tried to stand up, only for Ino to chop at her neck, knocking her unconscious... The whole fight – minus Ami's bragging – lasted less than ten seconds... While Hayate announced her as a victor of the match, Ino stared at her own hands, trying to comprehend the fact that she just defeated the kunoichi that was ranked fifth in the academy with just two hits... The platinum-blond kunoichi slowly, still not completely believing in her victory, walked up onto the balconies and headed to where Sachiko and Naruto were. Once she was there, Ino looked at the white-haired kunoichi, who was standing, leaning into her boyfriend's embrace, and... bowed. Sachiko stared at her in surprise for several seconds, before giving her a smile with her eyes.

"If anything, I'm the one who should be thanking you." Now it was Ino's turn to stare.

"W-Why? You were the one who helped me..." The platinum-blond girl asked in a surprise.

"And you are the one, who stepped onto the path of becoming the real kunoichi, unlike those two who disgrace _us_ by being _useless_ fangirl. For that I thank you." Ino blushed and, giving the white-haired kunoichi one more small bow, walked her team.

* * *

During that exchange, the sixth match between Sabaku no Temari and Hyuuga Neji started. Despite his superior taijutsu, the Hyuuga genius could do only so much against fan-wielding kunoichi, who was either sending strong gusts of wind at him with her battle fan, or used the said fan as a club whenever Neji got close to her. In the end, the Hyuuga boy got caught by one of his opponent's wind jutsus. The small tornado Temari created had torn Neji pretty badly, and the moment he was dropped onto the arena floor, Suna kunoichi knocked him unconscious with her fan.

The seventh match was announced then and it was between Hyuuga Hinata and Mubi from the Hidden Rain. Despite her normally meek attitude, in this fight Hinata showed herself to be the real warrior, using her advantages in speed, agility and her taijutsu level to soundly defeat her opponent, destroying him in less than a minute, never giving him even a chance to go on offensive... After the medical team carried Mubi away, the preliminaries moved to the next, eighth, fight.

Tenten fought well, showing her great skills with almost every kind of throwing weapon, but the Suna puppeteer was not the opponent she could defeat with just that: the puppet protected Kankuro for lighter projectiles while he simply dodged heavier ones. When the war-paint wearing boy got tired of this little game, he just sent his puppet to capture Tenten by wrapping its four arms around the girl. Then he made a hidden blade emerge from upper arms and pointed them at the girl's neck. Konoha kunoichi forfeited...

* * *

"Ninth match will be..." Hayate said, before giving out a cough. "...Between Uchiha Sasuke from Konohagakure no Sato and Abumi Zaku from Otogakure no Sato. Will these two, please, come down to the arena?" Uchiha boy arrogantly and with no hurry strode down to the arena, while Zaku, who had one of his hands in a cast decided that jumping down straight from the balcony would be faster. After asking both shinobi if they were ready – and getting positive answers – Hayate started the match and, like before, disappeared into the background.

"Now I get the second chance to brake your arms. How convenient." Sasuke said a bit bloodthirstily, which, though, didn't scare his opponent.

"Don't underestimate me. **Zankuha!**" The last loyal Uchiha barely had time to sidestep the incoming attack. Then charged at Zaku, who tried to hit him with **zankuha** again. Sasuke evaded it too and appeared in front of the sound ninja, ready to start executing his 'revenge'. But he didn't expect Zaku to move his other arm from the cast and send **zankuha** point blank... Two of his cheerleaders winced as their Sasuke-sama landed roughly on his back. Trying to use the advantage he created, Oto nin charged at rising from the floor Uchiha boy, intent to the match now. Too bad, he underestimated Sasuke's speed, and his attempt of knocking Sasuke unconscious failed with his fist being caught. Uchiha glared at his opponent for a second, before unscrewing his arm, making Zaku let out a whimper from the pain. Not stopping there, Sasuke threw him down and, capturing his other arm while placing his foot on his back, yanked, smiling sickly when he heard other boy's bones pop of their sockets.

"You are no match for the might of the Uchiha clan. Know your place, scum." Letting Zaku's arm, Sasuke jumped up, before dropping onto the boy's back, most likely breaking his spine. Seeing that the match was over, Hayate appeared next to the fighters, but Sasuke tried to continue beating his opponent. A flash of killing intent later, 'frozen' but victorious Sasuke was handled to Kakashi, while medical team carried Zaku away.

"Ahem... Tenth match will be between..." The proctor waited for the screen to show names. "Aburame Shino and Uzumaki Naruto, both from Konohagakure no Sato." He coughed. "With these two come down for the match?" Sachiko removed herself from her boyfriend's arms and gave him a quick kiss for luck. Now, being motivated like that, Naruto had no other choice bit to win. Seeing that Shino had already almost descended to the arena floor, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki chose to jump down from the balcony to catch up with him... Once both fighters were standing in front of each other and all pre-fight formalities were kept, Hayate wagged his hand to start the match... Shino calmly stood, seemingly just observing his opponent, his face, partially hidden by the high collar, betraying nothing about what was going in his mind. Naruto was standing in front of him in a defensive position, waiting for the Aburame heir to make the first move.

'_It seems my colony wouldn't be of much use in draining him: I can't drain more than high chuunin reserves at this point. Naruto-san has at least ANBU-level reserves._' The bug user thought, sending his bugs to obscure his opponent's field of vision, before attacking him with a powerful taijutsu combination. Though the said combination ended the moment his fist collided with Naruto's chest. Shino immediately jumped back, avoiding being hit by the blond and looked at him. Naruto's skin looked to be grayish like it was made of stone. Choosing not to reveal more jutsu from his arsenal than was absolutely necessary, the blond jinchuuriki charged at the Aburame heir, executing his own combo... Remembering from the academy days how strong Naruto was, Shino chose to use his slightly superior speed to avoid being hit, counterattacking at any given chance... Finally seeing that pure taijutsu will give him nothing against such opponent, Naruto did three handseals before slamming his hands against the arena floor.

"**Doton: ganchuusou!**" Stone spear grew from the floor very fast, making Shino pay attention to it for several moments rather that to the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. Using this distraction wisely, the blond shinobi silently created stone clone and hid under the floor using yet another doton ninjutsu, leaving his doppelganger to continue attacking the Aburame heir with taijutsu moves. But as the clone lacked speed, strength and intelligence of the original, Shino quickly drove it into a corner.

"Naruto-san, it seems that you lost the match." The bug user said in an emotionless voice as he placed kunai to the clone's neck.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Said Naruto's voice from underneath and moment later Shino was pulled under the floor. Naruto emerged in front of him and, drawing his own kunai, placed it against the Aburame heir's neck. Seeing that he was caught, fair and square, Shino forfeited.

"As Aburame Shino forfeited, the winner of the tenth match is Uzumaki Naruto." Announced Hayate, while the blond shinobi helped the bug user out of the stone 'prison' and returned the arena to its initial condition. "The eleventh match will be between Sabaku no Gaara from Sunagakure no Sato and Oboro from Amegakure no Sato." Suna ninja appeared in on the arena floor via sand **shunshin**, while Oboro made use of the stairs. "Are you two ready?" Both genin nodded. "Then, hajime!" Saif the proctor before disappearing into the background... Gaara gave his opponent one minute to execute any attack against him he wanted. The sand shield was enough to protect the redhead from everything that was thrown at him... After one minute of standing passively, Gaara counterattacked, sending a wave of sand at Oboro. Ninja from the hidden rain didn't expect this and got caught in the sand, that quickly formed a cocoon around him. And all that Gaara did, was raising a hand.

"Sabaku soso." The redhead said without even a hint of emotion. "He is dead." To emphasize, he made the cocoon shrink a bit. Hayate, who appeared in the center of the arena, nodded.

"As Oboro is unable to continue fighting, the winner of the match is Gaara." The Suna ninja let his opponent free, though he did it very reluctantly – it looked like the boy would rather kill Ame nin – and started walking back to where his team was standing. But halfway to the stairs Gaara suddenly stopped and grappled his head.

"Rrghh..." He groaned. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry mother!" He whispered, what it seemed in pain. "Bad men deny you blood... I promise, I will give you blood later... I'm sorry!" And just as suddenly as the seizure happened, it ended, and Gaara continued walking up the stairs with his ever-emotionless face.

* * *

The twelfth match was between Rock Lee and Inuzuka Kiba. Both specialized in taijutsu, so the fight was very dynamic, but not very long, as more experienced Lee knocked Kiba unconscious with a well-executed goken combo after dodging dog-boy's **gatsuga**. And as soon as the spandex-clad ninja was announced as the victor, his sensei – the man looked like an older Lee plus jounin vest – appeared next to him, and the 'duo of green beasts' started shouting each others' name and then... they hugged, creating quite horrific genjutsu that no one could dispel... After Hayate, with the help of several other jounins, removed the duo from the arena, the last match was announced.

This match was Nara Shikamaru against Sound kunoichi by the name of Tsuchi Kin. Shikamaru, despite being at the disadvantage of fighting genjutsu user, useing his tactical genius and his clan's shadow techniques, made Kin knock herself out by hitting her head against the wall.

* * *

"Now, I would like those, who won their matches to come down to the arena floor for the information about the final round of the chuunin exam. The rest of you are dismissed... When thirteen genin formed a line in front of Hayate, Ibiki passed a box, having each genin draw a paper with a number on it. "The finals will be held at the Konohagakure no Sato's main stadium and will be will simple one on one fights, the only difference will be that you will have a big auditory watching you." The proctor of the third test explained. "The only rule of the finals will be that proctor's word is a law. Is that clear?" There was a chorus of 'hai'.

"Now, some of you may wonder, what the papers you drew mean." Ibiki said, taking the word from Hayate. "The numbers on these papers will determine your opponent for the first round of the finals. Please, one by one, tell me the number you got."

"One." Stated Sachiko. Naruto, who stood next to her, waited for the second test's proctor to write something in his notepad before saying his number.

"Five."

"Thirteen." Said Sai then.

"Yosh! The flames of youth gave me number six!" Shouted Lee.

"My number is two." Replied Hinata, who was mostly back to her usual meek attitude.

"Twelve." Stated Sasuke in a tone that sounded like he owned the world.

"Eleven." Sounded the ever-emotionless voice of Sabaku no Gaara.

"Eight." Kankuro, who stood in a small distance from his redheaded teammate, said.

"Ten." Stated Temari. '_Damn, if I win my match, I will have to face Gaara._' She added in her mind.

"Four." Said Ino, trying to guess, whom she will have to fight.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru muttered under his breath. "Nine."

"Seven." Said Chouji.

"My number is three." Stated the final genin who entered the finals, Dosu. Ibiki finished writing in his notepad and showed the result – tournament table – to the genins.

"The fights will be like this. First round:Sachiko vs. Hyuuga Hinata, Kinuta Dosu vs. Yamanaka Ino, Uzumaki Naruto vs. Rock Lee, Akimichi Chouji vs. Sabaku no Kankuro, Nara Shikamaru vs. Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Gaara vs. Uchiha Sasuke. Sai will get a free path to the second round. The second round will be: winners of the first and second fights of the first round, winners of the third and forth fights of the first round, winner of the fifth fight of the first round vs. Sai. Winner of the sixth match of the first round will get a free path to the third round. The third round will be: winners of the first two matches of the second round and winner or the third match of second round vs. winner of the sixth match of the first round. The fourth round will be a match between two winners of the third round." The proctor of the second test made a small pause. "Any questions?" There were none. "In this case, you are dismissed for one month to prepare for the finals. Good luck." As soon as genins left, Iruka looked at Kakashi and asked him:

"What do you think now about my 'mediocre' team?" The silver-haired jounin pretended not to hear him.

* * *

That's all, folks! Leave me a **review**!


	11. One month

Hello, everyone, here's the newest chapter of the "_**The demon and the ghost**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**eclipseX**, **nobother**, **fanficreader71**, **doragonclaw**, **Sephiroth owns u all**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Reishin Amara**, **The Souless Void**, thank you, folks!  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, good ol' Jiraya appears in this chapter, and - hopefully - in an original way. Kakashi, though, doesn't appear at all. He's too lazy... =)  
**aWhiteAnimeKid**, yeah, custom fights forever!**  
Naginator**, right now I'm planning to 'tell' Naruto and Sachiko that they are twins in the last chapter. But that may change.  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, it will be original, but interesting? not sure.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, I decided to ridicule Sakura a bit. God know, she needs to quit being fangirl. Or at very least to start training instead of fawning over Sasuke all the time.

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**Kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object or person.  
**Douka: ranji shigumi** (Sachiko) &** Ranji shigumi** (Ino) - (C-rank) _Assimilated_: Wild lion's mane - Jutsu based on Jiraya's **Ranji shigumo** technique. Allows user to have control over his/her hair and used it to bind the target if it is close enough. This jutsu lacks the ability to crash the captured target Jiraya's version possesses, but still can pull and throw the target. Sachiko adds 'Assimilated' when using this jutsu to show that she wasn't original creator. Ino does not.  
**Doton: doryuusou** - (C-rank) Earth style: earthen rising spears - Creates rock spears rising from the ground.  
**Chouju giga** - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.  
**Jinton: nijuuryuu funkei no seme** - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: twin dragon decapitating strike - Two dust dragons simultaneously attack the target from two directions. Usually used when the target is in the air and has less chances of dodging.

* * *

Special thanks to "_**Army of lovers**_" band for providing me with oh so needed inspiration.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 10: One month**

Seeing that his whole team passed the preliminaries, Iruka decided to give them a day off, before starting training them for the finals of the chuunin exam. Of course, this didn't mean that either of the three genins would not train by themselves... Naruto and Sachiko were walking towards 'their' training ground through the streets of Konoha, when Ino approached them.

"Hello. Um... Are you going to train? C-Can I come with you?" The platinum-blond kunoichi asked unusually shy for her. Seeing as Naruto and Sachiko didn't plan to work on anything really secret right now, they saw no reason to say 'no', especially if she'd join them.

"Yeah, sure, let's go, Ino-chan." The white-haired girl said, smiling lightly... Twenty minutes later the trio of genins arrived to the one of less used training ground behind the Hokage monument.

"O-OK..." Naruto said, not really sure how to proceed with their training with Ino joining them. "Light spar, Sachiko-chan? Nothing above C-rank." He asked. The whitehead nodded, while Ino stared at them in a bit of a shock: her father promised to teach her a B-rank clan technique – the first to be in her repertoire – for the finals; and these two were limiting themselves to C and lower ranks...

"That's a light spar?" The platinum-blond kunoichi shouted. The other two genins nodded.

"Um, yeah." Naruto said, smiling sheepishly. "We both have big... OK, huge, chakra reserves naturally, plus we trained everyday since before we were eight..." Ino blushed a bit, remembering that she was spending her days trying to impress Sasuke with her beauty at that time... "And most of our more destructive techniques are B-ranks or higher." He commented.

"So, are you joining, Ino-chan?" Sachiko asked. The girl shook her head.

"No... I think, I will just watch you two for now..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded.

"OK then, let's begin, Sachiko-chan." The blond shinobi said, before jumping backwards to put some distance between himself and his sparring partner. Ino prepared to watch them, or to be more precise, Sachiko. She wanted to see what a 'real' kunoichi could do. Sure, she could watch Kurenai or Anko or any female jounin, but chances that they would allow her to watch them were non-existent... Also, Yamanaka clan was a clan of ninja who specialized in support, usually interrogating, healing, genjutsu or traps, though, every other generation there was born someone with ability to command plants – not like Shodai-sama, who could grow forest with just one jutsu, no, more like controlling existing plants to some degree. Because of this, Ino envisioned ninja battles to mostly be the exchange of ninjutsu and genjutsu, but she was clever enough not to think that taijutsu was something she won't need...

* * *

The two members of the team five stood across from each other, waiting for some signal to start their spar. The wind blew, launching some fallen leaves into the air, and, the white-haired kunoichi charged towards Naruto, who immediately switched to defensive... Once Sachiko had him within her reach, the girl tried to kick his head with her leg, making him block – the mistake he did way too often, considering how much they sparred. Using her chakra, the white-haired girl turned his hand into a pivot for herself and spun around the axis going through her outstretched leg, aiming for the heel drop to his head. Seeing this, Naruto made a powerful burst of chakra, destroying her "hold" onto him, and tried to punch her midsection. Only for Sachiko to substitute herself with a nearby stone. As the stone was falling onto the ground, she reappeared in a crouching position next to him with another **kawarimi**. Wasting no time, she did a stand on her left hand and tried to hit her boyfriend's knees with her foot, while secretly doing a short sequence of one-handed handseals.

'_**Douka: ranji shigumi**_' With this technique, her mid-back long hair extended and wrapped around Naruto's ankles, before pulling back. This, combined with her kick, made the Kyuubi jinchuuriki lose his balance and start falling backwards. Canceling the jutsu, the whitehead rolled forward, trying to do a heel drop onto her sparring partner's upper body, but he escaped with **kawarimi**, actually using the very same stone Sachiko used moments before. As soon as he was back to standing solidly on his two feet, Naruto slammed his hands onto the ground.

"**Doton: doryuusou!**" a rock spear rose, as of trying to stab Sachiko who was still recovering from her last attempt to hit him – of course, he'd never hurt her for real, but... The white-haired kunoichi, once again using **kawarimi**, appeared next to him and started a roundhouse kick towards his midsection, which he tried to lean away from. But moment later Sachiko switched their position and, because of his momentum, Naruto got hit by the continuation of her kick. And without his 'stone skin' he was easily sent onto the ground. Before the whitehead could make use of her advantage, the blond jinchuuriki **kawarimi**'ed away from her. The moment he was at his new location, he threw several shuriken, which were either dodged or skillfully deflected by Sachiko's stilettos...

"**Fuuton: daitoppa!**" The white-haired kunoichi send a powerful gust of wind towards Naruto, who simply moved out of the jutsu's path.

* * *

"Quite a fight, impressive, isn't it?" A male voice suddenly said behind the platinum-blond girl.

"GAH!" Ino screamed in surprise, almost jumping out of her skin. Turning around, she saw large man with long spiky white hair, dressed in muddy-green pants and jacked with dark-red waistcoat over it. The man also had a red line going down from each of his eyes. This mas was Jiraya the sannin, casually sitting on a bull-sized orange with blue markings toad.

"I'll have to admit, they are more skilled than Tsunade and I were at their age..." The gama sennin made a small pause. "...And the girl – Sachiko, right? – is much better developed than Tsu-hime was... I wonder, how she is under those..." Suddenly a kunai was thrown towards the self-proclaimed super-pervert. The man, though, just casually knocked it away with his chakra-hardened finger nail.

"Blondie, don't you know who I am?" Jiraya shouted to Naruto, who was trying to glare at him while keeping up with Sachiko.

"I don't care. You are trying to hit on _my_ girlfriend, old pervert!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki shouted back.

"Protective much... Though, if I had such a girlfriend..." The toad sage muttered under his breath, as he continued watching the duo spar... Finally, about fifteen minutes later, the spar ended with Sachiko throwing her boyfriend onto the ground with a well-calculated moderately powerful wind jutsu and then placing a stiletto at his neck before he could recover. Jiraya clapped. "Impressive. Very impressive, indeed." Naruto and Sachiko looked at the sannin, surprised a bit. "You know what, I might be willing to teach you a thing or two." Two members of the team five looked at each other for a couple of seconds, before turning back to the toad sage.

"If Iruka-sensei approves and under the condition that you will at least try to do something to help Sai too." The white-haired sannin took a thinking pose, complete with his finger tapping his chin. Normally he would just tell them off for these conditions, but they were looking out for their teammate, which was really important, and he felt like he must do something for Naruto – after all, he had done nothing for his godson in the past thirteen years, besides providing info for Konoha to continue existing.

"Fine. But that Sai boy will have to impress me too at least a little." The duo nodded, but then Sachiko noticed how down Ino was looking.

"How about I show you that hair jutsu?" She asked. "Yours is a little too soft, but it should still work." The platinum-blond eagerly nodded. "Under the condition that you will not teach it to anyone else." Ino nodded again. "Well then, how about lunch?"

**~/ *** \~**

Iruka was no fool to miss a chance of his genin being taught by one of the sannin, even for a little bit. He himself might pick a thing or two from one of the most powerful ninja of Konoha. So, on the third day since Naruto's and Sachiko's spar – they couldn't find Jiraya before – team five entered the training ground where the toad sage was waiting for them.

"First of all, as I said, Sai has to impress me, or I will not teach you. Any of you – you yourselves made the deal like this." The sannin announced. The pale boy just nodded while his teammates groaned at how the old man had caught them with his words. Iruka remained impassive, not knowing all the details about the situation. "All you have to do, is land one..." Jiraya said, showing his index finger to Sai – and everyone else. "...One hit on me. You have fifteen minutes." The boy nodded again and unrolled his scroll, preparing for the fight...

* * *

Of course, Jiraya was holding back in this fight. A lot. But still, for the first thirteen minutes none of the ink-user's attacks had even connected with him. But then, a well hidden ink snake managed to wrap itself around sannin's legs. Of course, it was destroyed a moment later, but the white-haired man counted this as one hit and declared that he 'was impressed' by Sai's performance.

"OK... As I'm the man of my word, I will teach you three one jutsu each." Genins nodded. "Let's start, Sai, what would you like to learn?" The pale boy though for a moment, before answering:

"As you have seen, Jiraya-sama, the main weakness of my jutsu is that the beasts revert back to ink after taking a single hit. I also know the basics of fuyunjutsu, and can create an explosive tag. Thus, I was thinking of combining my beasts with explosive tag, so that they will explode when destroyed or upon my command." Sai said.

"Good idea." the sannin commented. "But it is not easy to do that. I might be able to draw a basic scheme and the chart for the jutsu combination, but it will take a day or two and you will have have to do the rest." The ink-user nodded.

"Thank you, Jiraya-sama." The sannin nodded and than looked at Sachiko.

"Do you know anything about jinton jutsus, Jiraya-sama?" She asked. The white-haired self-proclaimed super-pervert nodded.

"While jinton is presumed to be a bloodline element, and I'm unable to use it, during the Third Great shinobi war I had ran into Tsuchikage and his troop, and was able to memorize a sequence for one of his jinton techniques before having to flee. That technique was **nijuuryuu funkei no seme**, the twin dragon decapitating strike." Seeing the light in the girl's eyes, Jiraya hastily continued. "I will show you the sequence when I know what Naruto wants." Sachiko sighed, but nodded. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki took it that it was his turn to speak.

"I don't want any jutsu. I want you to modify the seal,..." Before he had finished, Jiraya interrupted him.

"You want me to tamper the seal? Are you sure the Kyuubi isn't influencing you?" Naruto sent the sannin a glare.

"I would have explained, had you not interrupted me, Juraya-_sama_." The white-haired man had the decency to look abashed. "Anyway, I will answer you questions starting with the second one. No. Kyuubi isn't influencing me. So far I have seen it only as a shape-less mass yoki with no apparent intelligence or even true conscious. I believe that whatever Yondaime-sama did when sealing it away, it had taken Kyuubi's soul away from the yoki that made up beast's body." The blond explained.

"So, it looks like sensei was right in his theory about the bijuu: they are semi-conscious yoki that parasitize on other souls to anchor to this plane of existence and build their own conscious. Take away that soul and they will be reduced to what you described and will eventually fade away if they are no sealed. And since Yondaime's seal prevents the yoki from parasitizing on your mind and soul, the Kyuubi remains as just a mass of yoki." The sannin said. Naruto nodded and continued.

"What I want, is to have the seal reinforced, so that it takes less damage when I'm using yoki. I will openly admit that I hate it, as I'm not completely myself when using yoki, I'm more feral and much easier to influence. But yoki gives power which might be needed to save my team or the village one day. And when that day comes, I want the process of using yoki to be as safe for both me and those whom I am protecting, as possible." The blond jinchuuriki said. The sannin nodded to himself.

"Your request if by far the hardest, as the seal that hold the Kyuubi in you is one of the most complex seals in the history, but I will do what I can. But don't expect any results for at least a week. This would be the smallest amount of time I will need to think of a safe way to modify the seal." Naruto nodded.

"This is acceptable."

**~/ *** \~**

Jiraya, despite being a pervert... super-pervert, truly was a man of his word, and he showed Sachiko the handseal sequence for the Tsuchikage's jutsu, while explaining what it looked like. That was all that he could do. A day later he dropped by during team's draining and gave Sai the scroll with his ideas on merging **chouju giga** with the explosive tag sealing array. And by the time Jiraya finished the plan for the modification of Naruto's seal – ten days later – the pale boy was doing some progress with his new jutsu. Sure, it still was far from being combat-ready, but...

That evening the white-haired sannin with the assistance of Sandaime Hokage himself applied the modifications to Naruto's seal. The process, though, was quite painful and taxing for the jinchuuriki and landed him for the whole _two_ days into the hospital. During this time, his girlfriend pretty much refused to stay away from him, and only hospital rules prevented her form being next to him all the time...

Once the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was awake – and done with 'paying' Sachiko 'for making her worry' – Jiraya decided to stick around and help the blond to get at least a little better control over the Kyuubi's yoki. Thinking about yoki as just a more potent chakra, the toad sage had Naruto try adjusting all of his techniques to the new levels of power... But when the blond shinobi started performing his earth-style jutsus, everyone present – he himself, Sachiko, Jiraya and Iruka – were very surprised with the result. And decided to develop this new ability, while keeping it a secret. For now.

**~/ *** \~**

On the last weekend before the finals, Sachiko had a friendly spar with Ino, mostly to see how well the platinum-blond 'developed' the jutsu the whitehead gave her pointer to. No, Sachiko didn't show how to do the _**douka: ranji shigumi**_ technique, instead she gave Ino the theory behind how it works and left the girl to recreate the jutsu on her own, saying that the real ninja must be able to this. And as Ino was working towards being the real kunoichi, she accepted the 'challenge'... Naruto just tagged along with them as Jiraya gave him a day off from his training. The blond jinchuuriki had a suspicion that the white-haired pervert of the sannin was around the area too, spying on the fight in hopes of girls will rip each others' clothes...

"So, are you two ready?" Naruto asked, standing between two girls. His girlfriend was in her usual taijutsu stance, while her platinum-blond opponent was using a modification of the academy taijutsu stance. When they nodded, he wagged his hand. "Hajime!" And then he **shunshin**'ed to the edge of the clearing.

* * *

Sachiko didn't waste any time and charged towards her opponent in a zigzag pattern, before lashing out a fast strike towards Ino's midsection. The platinum-blond girl evaded the attack, even if barely, though it still was an accomplishment, despite Sachiko using barely thirty percent of her taijutsu skills... Not giving her opponent more than a moment to recover from her first strike, the white-haired kunoichi went for a roundhouse kick towards other girl's head and was – pleasantly – surprised when Ino switched their places with **kawarimi**, while trying to land a hit on her back. Sachiko dodged the punch quite easily by doing a stand on her hands and, using her momentum, tried to land a kick onto the platinum-blond girl. Ino tried to duck under the kick, but wasn't fast enough to dodge it completely.

"**Ranji shigumi!**" She said the moment white-haired girl's foot connected with her shoulder. Her long hair turned 'alive' and quickly wrapped around Sachiko's foot, pulling her along with Ino onto the ground. That was at least until the whitehead substituted herself with a rock.

"Nice trick. I see you made quite a progress on this technique, Ino-chan." Sachiko commented as she waited for her sparring partner to stand up. "Would have worked on pretty much any genin." The platinum-blond kunoichi beamed with pride for her accomplishment. "Now..." Sachiko moved faster than any time before in this spar, appearing in form of Ino less than two seconds later. "...Let's take this to the next level..." Ino gulped. Now she was sure she would lose. But she still decided to continue fighting, if only to see where her limit now was...

**~/ *** \~**

Finally, the day of the finals of the chuunin exams came... Konoha was full with the guests who came to see finalists fight each other. A lot of them, of course, came to see the last Uchiha and the youngest son of the Kazekage, but many were also interested in seeing team five's or Hinata's fights...

Team five was escorted to the stadium by their sensei, mostly to help them with getting through the crowds. Even if they arrived fifteen minutes before the even would start, they were the last, save for the Uchiha, to enter the chamber where contestants had to wait for being called on to the arena. Exactly at noon, a senbon-chewing jounin with bandana on his head announced:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are happy to see you here, at Konohagakure no Sato, today, at the finals of the chuunin exams. Now let's meet those who passed all the trials of this exam and are here to show you what they can! Meet the finalists of the chuunin exam!" The jounin – new proctor, most genin assumed – announced, and the eleven genin walked on to the arena, as the crowds cheered for them.

* * *

That's all, folks! Leave me a **review**!


	12. Chuunin selection exams, finals

Hello, everyone, here's the newest chapter of the "_**The Demon and the Ghost**_" story for your entertainment. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, it's Ino, so who knows what's in her head? And I don't remember whether I had said this or not, but I'd estimate the chances of Sachiko winning a spar against Naruto while they are 'holding back' to be around 60% - she is faster and more agile, plus Naruto doesn't have his stone skin (**doton: domu**) for additional protection.  
**eclipseX**, **Badboyzkg**, **nobother**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **fanficreader71**, **Fayneir**, **OBSERVER01**, **RE5 forever**, **sh8ad8ow**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, thank you!  
**The real leghendary supersayji**, I'm not sure about Itachi... Hadn't thought about it... And I might do just that with Orochimaru. Naruto and Sachiko in this story are lower B-rank ninjas, Sai, Temari, Kankuro and Lee are higher C-ranks. All higher ranks' power level are shifted towards 'even more powerful' in this story...  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, what happens when you mix Kyuubi's yoki and the earth element in one Naruto Uzumaki will be shown in the next chapter or the one after that (not sure whether I will split the invasion into two chapters or not) And thank about your introducing Jiraya comment. **Naginator**, this should also answer your 'elemental' question.  
**Reishin Amara**, no, Naruto's 'yoki-powered' element isn't jinton. But it does have the earth element as one of its 'components'.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, I find this Jiraya to be more believable... And, no, it's not sho:ton.  
**RPGuy777**, no, Sachiko's not 'regaining colors'. She'll be purple-eyed whitehead till the end. And she won't be the next Kyuubi vessel either, though... she'll be exposed to small dosages of yoki quite ofter rather soon (several times a day sometimes ;) )  
**Tristan76**, there won't be true timeskip in this story. More likely I'll write several month-long missions for Jiraya + team 5. Naruto has a very weak lightning element, but it's completely overshadowed by his almost inhuman affinity towards the earth element. Sachiko already has three elements (dust, wind and earth). Do you think she needs another one? And one of your guesses about Naruto's 'yoki-powered' elements was correct. Wait till I get there to find out which one.

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**Kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object or person.  
**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba** - (A-rank) Wind style: wind sword - A powerful blade of wind.  
**Hakke kushou** - (bloodline jutsu) Eight divination signs air palm - one of the only ranged attacks Hyuuga taijutsu style has. Sends a blast of chakra-laced wind towards the target.  
**Fuuton: daitoppa** - (C-rank) Wind style: great breakthrough - User blows a powerful gust of wind towards the target.  
**Doton: toge ryudou** - (B-rank) Earth style: spiked land - My original ninjutsu. Does exactly what its name suggests: turn a big patch of land in front of the user into stone spikes.  
**Fuuton: reppushou** - (C-rank) Wind style: gale wind palm - strong gust of wind sent towards his target. When acting in conjunction with another thrown weapon, the wind can increase its power and deadliness.  
**Doton: doryuusou** - (C-rank) Earth style: earthen rising spears - Creates rock spears rising from the ground.  
**Hakke hasangeki** - (bloodline jutsu) Eight divination signs destructive mountain fist - A strong wave of chakra released upon contact with the target that throws it away. Also can close tenketsu.  
**Hakkeshou kaiten** - (bloodline jutsu) Eight divination palms heavenly spin - Creates a protective dome of spinning chakra around the user.  
**Douka: ranji shigumi** (Sachiko) &** Ranji shigumi** (Ino) - (C-rank) _Assimilated_: Wild lion's mane - Jutsu based on Jiraya's **Ranji shigumo** technique. Allows user to have control over his/her hair and used it to bind the target if it is close enough. This jutsu lacks the ability to crash the captured target Jiraya's version possesses, but still can pull and throw the target. Sachiko adds 'Assimilated' when using this jutsu to show that she wasn't original creator. Ino does not.  
**Chouju giga** - (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.  
**Doton: domu** - (B-rank) Earth style: earth spear - 'Stone skin', hardens user's body.  
**Konoha senpuu** - (D-rank) Leaf whirlwind - Flying roundhouse kick.  
**Omote renge** - (B-rank) Front lotus - User after openinf first inner gates kicks the opponent upwards and jumps after him. There he bind the opponent to prevent escaping and starts spinning downwards, driving the oponent head first into the ground.  
**Ure renge** - (A-rank) Reverse lotus - User needs to open five inner gates. Then he kicks the opponent into the air and rains many kicks and strikes onto the opponent while airbound. Then wraps badages around the opponent to pull him close for the endining downwards palm strike to the chest. Strains user's body a lot.  
**Doton: kyokan no kobushi** - (C-rank) Earth style: colossus' fist - My original ninjutsu. Creates a giant stone fist that (tries to) punches the target.  
**Doton: kyokan no sho osu** - (C-rank) Earth style: colossus' crashing palms - My original ninjutsu. Creates two giant stone pals that try to crash anything that happens to be between them. Like **Doton: kyokan no kobushi**, this jutsu was inspired by the "_**Fullmetal Alchemist**_" manga (I don't own it!)  
**Doton: shi no hashira** - (B-rank) Earth style: columns of death - My original ninjutsu. Raises several stone columns from the ground. Then this columns 'attack' the target.

*** Important Author's note**: I'm currently writing my diploma (or whatever it is called for a bachelor) so the updates for all my stories will be even more ...random.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 11: Chuunin selection exam, finals**

After all eleven genin present walked onto the arena floor, Genma – the new proctor – announced that there will be a small change in the matches: instead of Dosu, who was no longer a part of the exam for some reason, Ino will be fighting Sai.

"Now that we are done with technicalities..." The senbon-chewing jounin said rather quietly, before continuing in his loud, 'announcement', voice. "The first match will be between Sachiko and Hyuuga Hinata, both from Konohagakure no Sato." Then he switched to normal volume. "I'd like the rest of the exam participants to leave the arena." They all nodded and started walking towards the entrance to the competitors' balcony Genma pointed them to, though Naruto stayed on the arena for a moment longer to kiss his girlfriend a good luck... Once there were only two genin left on the arena floor, Genma announced the rules – they were the same with what was in preliminaries, except for killing being allowed now. "Are you two ready?" The proctor asked Sachiko and Hinata. Both girls nodded. "Hajime!" He announced then, before **shunshin**'ing to the edge of the arena.

"**Byakugan!**" The Hyuuga heiress made a handseal and veins around her eyes bulged, signifying that she had activated her doujutsu.

"Let's give'em the show." The white-haired girl said, before charging towards Hinata. While it was not a good idea to fight a Hyuuga with taijutsu, Sachiko actually didn't even intend to. This was just a distraction as when she was just several meters away from Hinata, she drew her stilettos and slashed the air with them, firing two crescent-shaped underpowered wind blades towards her opponent. "**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!**" Having being attacked almost from the point blank, Hinata had to user **kawarimi** to 'save' her life. She reappeared next to the trees, but immediately had to dodge another wind blade. While she was concentrating on not getting hit with the wind jutsu, the white-haired kunoichi **shunshin**'ed closer to her. "**Doton: doryuusou!**" Sachiko almost succeeded in catching Hinata by surprise, but the white-eyed girl jumped away, onto the tree, not getting even a scratch.

"**Hakke kushou!**" Hinata whispered, while doing a thrusting motion with her right arm. Sachiko decided to play safe and substituted herself with her opponent, forcing her to dodge her own attack. The Hyuuga heiress seemed to be ready for this turn of the events as she gracefully sidestepped the attack, while again doing thrusting motion towards Sachiko, immediately jumping into the air afterwards.

"**Fuuton: daitoppa!**" Just as she dodged Hinata's attack the white-haired girl sent a powerful gust of wind towards her airborne opponent. As expected, unable to dodge, Hinata used **kawarimi**. "**Doton: toge ryoudo!**" The moment the Hyuuga heiress finished the first substitution, she was forced to do another one to avoid being impaled by a mass of stone spears rising form the ground, some of which managed to wound her legs a bit. Immediately afterwards the second **kawarimi** she had to dodge several shuriken accelerated by **fuuton: reppushou** and another **fuuton: daitoppa**. Sachiko was not giving her any easy time as she charged towards Hinata with her stiletto drawn, making the white-eyed girl smirk. In a perfectly fluid motion the Hyuuga heiress evaded a little sloppy slash and pressed her hands to Sachiko's stomach.

"**Hakke hasangeki!**" There was a beam of chakra pushing the white-haired kunoichi several steps backwards, before exploding into a cloud of white smoke "Clone..." Hinata muttered under her breathe, reading herself to look for her opponent who was now hiding somewhere. It proved to be unneeded as a pair of hands wrapped around her ankles. Moment later Hinata was pulled under the ground. Sachiko rose from the arena floor in front of her then, pointing her stiletto towards the white-eyed girl.

"Give up." Hinata closed her eyes and started building her chakra up.

"No." She said quietly. "**Hakkeshou kaiten!**" Her ace in the sleeve for the next round was gone... A blue sphere of chakra surrounded Hinata, freeing her by destroying the earth around her. Also, the kaiten sent unprepared Sachiko flying backwards, but the white-haired kunoichi recovered while still in the air and landed on her feet, skidding across the arena a bit. Just as Hinata got out of the hole her kaiten made, Sachiko sent two successive **fuuton: daitoppa** almost simultaneously towards her, one a little bit to the right, one – to the left, making sure that the Hyuuga heiress couldn't dodge the next attack by simply moving away.

"**Fuuton: reppushou!**" The white-haired girl attacked.

"**Hakkeshou kaiten!**" Hinata started the 'ultimate defense'. Of course, even with evading to the left or right or jumping into the air – this would give the whitehead wind user greater advantage over her – being out of question, the white-eyed girl still could use **kawarimi**, but this would land her next to trees where she would have less room for evading and less time to react to the threats as Sachiko would be closer to her...

"**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!**" Two crescent-shaped wind blades sped towards Hinata from the tips of Sachiko's stilettos. The Hyuuga heiress continued spinning, hoping that her kaiten would protect her from these jutsus. It did, actually, but was weakened severely, so the **fuuton: daitoppa** that followed the wind blades closely managed to brake through the 'ultimate defense' and knock Hinata onto the ground. Not giving her opponent a chance to recover, Sachiko **shunshin**'ed next to her and placed her her knee on girl's chest, while putting one of her stiletto to the front of her neck and the other to the back – this way should Hinata try using kaiten, she wound simply get beheaded. "Give up." Seeing that she had no way out of the current situation, other than the offered one, Hinata swallowed loudly, before saying in a false-calm voice – she was scared of her father's displeasure.

"I- I forfeit."

"As Hyuuga Hinata forfeited, the winner of the match is Sachiko." Announced Genma, making the tribunes roar... The white-haired kunoichi put her stilettos back to the holsters and, removing her knee from girl's chest, helped Hinata stand up. Then two girls started walking towards the competitors' boot. They both were sore from the damage they took during the fight and tired from having spent so much chakra – Sachiko had to use almost eighty percent of hers, and hoped that she could regain enough to continue the tournament by the time of her next fight...

**~/ *** \~**

"Our next match is between Yamanaka Ino and Sai, both from Konohagakure no Sato." Genma announced when the next two competitors were down on the arena floor facing each other... From their position on the right end of the competitors' booth's balcony Naruto and Sachiko could see that even though Ino knew she had nearly no chance of winning, she was determined to do her best... "Are you two ready?" Genma asked then. Both Ino and Sai nodded. "Then... Hajime!" And as soon as the last word left his mouth, the proctor** shunshin**'ed to the edge of the arena.

Knowing that Sai was for the most part a long-range support-oriented fighter, who relied a lot on his animated drawing, Ino immediately charged forward, hoping gain some tactical advantage from this. Unfortunately for the platinum-blond kunoichi, like she discovered the very next moment, Sai was a capable hand-to-hand fighter as well. So for the next minute or so, the two were engaged in a fierce taijutsu fight, but Ino was tiring faster and, at one point, Sai managed to get far enough for her to open one of his many scrolls.

"**Chouju giga!**" A good dozen of ink snakes turned alive and slithered towards the Yamanaka heiress. The girl tried to put some distance between herself and the animated drawings, but the snakes were faster than she expected them to be, and one of them managed to wrap around Ino's legs, making the girl fall on the ground. Another one quickly bound her arms, while the rest of the snakes dispersed back into an ink. The pale boy walked up to her and drew his ninja-to. "Give up." Ino shook her head.

"**Ranji shigumi!**" Her long hair turned alive and wrapped around surprised Sai's arm, the one that he held his ninja-to in. Moment later, Ino made pulled his arm, making him slash the snakes that bound her. As soon as she was free, the platinum-blond kunoichi used **kawarimi** to get as far away from her opponent as possible. She also reminded herself to thank Sachiko for insisting on perfecting _the technique_ to the point where she could use it without handseals... But right now she had a match to fight, and seeing an ink lion approaching, she drew her kunai and took a defensive stance. As soon as the beast was just at the right distance from her, Ino attacked it, he kunai slashing its mug. But it didn't turn into an ink as the platinum-blond kunoichi expected. Instead, it exploded, sending her flying into a tree and knocking the breath out of her. Pressing his advantage, Sai **shunshin**'ed next to her and pressed a pressure point on her neck, rendering her unconscious.

"As Yamanaka Ino is unable to continue fighting, the winner of the match is Sai." Genma announced, appearing next to the pale boy. He nodded and picked Ino up, caring her towards the competitors' booth, ignoring the cheers from the spectators on the tribunes...

**~/ *** \~**

Up in the competitors' booth, seeing that Naruto's match was next, Sachiko stepped out of her boyfriend's arms she was so comfortable in, and gave him a quick kiss on his lips. For luck. Naruto smiled and gave his white-haired angel a light hug, before jumping on the rail.

"See you down there, Lee." And the Kyuubi jinchuuriki leaped down onto the arena floor. Lee shouted something about flames of youth and jumped down to the arena floor too... Genma just shook his head at genins' antics and waited for them to reach the center of the arena, where he was staying, and face each other. "Ahem... And now to the third match, Uzumaki Naruto versus Rock Lee. Again, both are from Konohagakure no Sato." The proctor announced. "Are you two ready?" He asked then, turning towards the two genin. Naruto and Lee nodded. "Hajime!" Genma announced, before **shunshin**'ing to the edge of the arena. The spandex-clad genin didn't hesitate a moment, and charged at his opponent the moment the beginning of the match was announced. But Naruto managed to evade Lee's attack and jumped backwards. While in the midair, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki ran through a sequence of handseals and the moment his feet touched the ground, he performed the jutsu.

"**Doton: domu!**" Almost instantly his skin turned a bit grayish. Seeing this small transformation of his opponent, Lee slowed down a bit, but continued his attack.

"**Konoha senpuu!**" Naruto managed to block the incoming roundhouse kick and tried to counterattack with a punch to Lee's stomach, but the older genin easily avoided it, and moment later attacked the blond again, with another taijutsu combo. For the next couple of minutes the fight continued like that: Lee was attacking with taijutsu and Naruto was on defensive, counterattacking whenever it was possible. And neither of them managed to land a solid hit on his opponent... Then the spandex-clad genin suddenly jumped back, putting some distance between himself and his blond opponent. "Your flames of youth burn bright, Naruto-san." Lee said. "I believe, I should take them off. Gai-sensei approved it..." And he proceeded to remove his orange leg warmers that turned out to be weights. Very heavy weights...

"Damn!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki swore as Lee disappeared from his sight. Moment later the blond shinobi felt a tingling sensation coming from his 'field of awareness', alerting him about an incoming attack. He tried to block it, but succeeded only partially as Lee was really really fast. Before he could counterattack, the spandex-clad genin disappeared again... Naruto felt another incoming, and barely managed to dodge it, his opponent's fist almost touching his left ear. Lee disappeared again and started running rather tight circles around him, and judging by the dust, the boy had his first gates opened... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki swore again, already knowing what his opponent was planning. His guess was proved to be correct, when Lee's leg connected with his upper chest, sending him into the air. A second later the spandex-clad boy was behind him, somehow making his bandages wrap around him, restricting his movements.

"**Omote renge!**" Lee shouted as he turned them upside down – so that their heads were towards the ground – and started spinning them around. At seemingly the last possible moment Lee disconnect, leaving Naruto to fall head first onto the ground, something even the stone skin wouldn't save from... But the blond shinobi wasn't about to let himself being killed so easily. The moment he felt his opponent disconnect, he tried to change the position of his body, so that he won't break his neck when crashing into the ground... ...Falling flat on his back was painful, but at least he was alive, and as the bindings weakened, with a chakra pulse to increase his strength, Naruto ripped them. Standing up was quite a task in his current condition, but Lee didn't seem to fare much better – opening celestial gates was very taxing... Seeing his opponent stand up Lee opened second gates, so that he could continue fighting for some time. He really hopped that he won't have to use **ure renge** on Naruto, as he had quite a respect for the blond – after all he too was a genius of a hard work – but as Naruto could use ninjutsu and use them very effectively, he might just have no other option...

"Lee-san... I know that your taijutsu is your ...finest weapon..." Naruto said, choosing his words carefully. "...But I think using a killing move on your comrade ...goes a bit too far. Now I will no longer hold back my own powers." He made a small pause, while bringing his hands into a handseal. "**Doton: kyokan no kobushi!**" He did a step towards Lee and shifted his hands into another handseal. Immediately, large stone fist rose from the ground, almost hitting the spandex-clad genin on his front. Naruto just change handseal again. "**Doton: kyokan no sho osu!**" Stone fist fell apart while two open palms rose from the ground, trying to crash airborne Lee. The older boy, though, did a roundhouse kick that broke one of the stone palms, so the other one just pushed him to the side harmlessly... Naruto was about to continue his assault, but Lee shot towards him faster than he had seen him ever before, so instead he tried to block the incoming attack. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki actually placed the block in the right place, but it didn't save him from the brute power behind the punch... Naruto winced from pain as he again landed on his back. Quick **kawarimi** saved him from being knocked unconscious by Lee's next attack. '_I need to do something._'

"**Konoha senpuu!**" Naruto barely dodged his opponent's kick. Thankfully, it seemed, Lee was on his limit of the second gate and he was slowing down... Deciding to use this to his advantage, the blond jinchuuriki flashed through handseals.

"**Doton: shi no hashira!**" Several stone columns rose from the ground around Lee and shot at the spandex-clad boy. Yet he managed to escape the attack... Much to his horror, Naruto noticed Lee's eyes turn completely white while his skin was turning red. He opened third gates. Naruto needed to do something, and quickly, or the chances were he'd end in the hospital or, worse, six feet under the ground, should he allow Lee to attack... ...Also Naruto had noticed that while Lee could easily open first gates, he needed several seconds of standing still to open third ones. And as more chakra was bursting from older boy's body, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki guessed the Lee was opening forth gates too. '_Now!_' The blond **shunshin**'ed next to his spandex-clad opponent and punched him on his stomach, making him lose concentration and revert back to all gates closed, while being sent onto the ground. Not giving Lee any chance to recover, Naruto reappeared next to him and knocked him unconscious with a precise hit to his neck.

"As Rock Lee is unable to continue fighting, winner of the match is Uzumaki Naruto!" Genma announced for the crowd.

**~/ *** \~**

"Do you know how much you made me worry, Naruto-_kun_?" Angry Sachiko yelled as soon as Naruto reached the competitors' booth. Naruto just leaned onto the wall in 'their' corner, wincing slightly from the pain in his back, and tuned his girlfriend's rant out... By the time the whitehead calmed down and started doing something 'productive', like a light massage to ease his pain, Kankuro had defeated Chouji and the fifth match was announced... Shikamaru wasn't in any hurry to either win or lose it seemed, as the match dragged for what seemed to be hours, though, this allowed Sachiko to recover a good deal of her chakra, and Naruto to have Kyuubi's yoki and his girlfriend's tender hands heal his back sufficiently... In the end, Shikamaru managed to outsmart Temari and capture her with his his shadow, only to give up a moment later, claiming that he was out of chakra. Genma then announced a fifteen minute long brake, stating that it was an interval between the first and the second halves of the matches, though anyone with half a brain could see that it was nothing more than an attempt to buy Sasuke some time, so that he wouldn't be disqualified for being late...

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That's all, folks. Leave e a **review**!


	13. Invasion, part I

Hello, everyone, here's the newest chapter of the "the Demon and the Ghost" for your enjoyment!

*** Review response**:  
**fanficreader71**, **eclipseX**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **OBSERVER01**, **Tristan76**, **Lycan91**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, thank you, folks!  
**nobother**, oh well...  
**Reishin Amara**, **ChaosLord SilverLink310**, Sarutobi will have ...his way with the council when they will be discussing Sasuke.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, no, there will be invasion. Ans some ...cool fights there.  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, Sachiko (and Ino, who would join them occasionally. yes, Ino will do that, but rarely and more with Sachiko than with Naruto) will be more than enough for Naruto.  
**lordamnesia**, that won't be a change. It would be an... addition with an activation trigger (Kyuubi's yoki namely).  
**RE5 forever**, no, I'll try to do this one without any crossovers.  
**T-Naruto**, they will find that out in the last chapter. But they will not care about that anymore at that point.  
**xstofer**, she more versatile, but they are roughly equal in terms of the battle strength. Well, that is for as long as Naruto doesn't use Kyuubi's yoki or youton.

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**(Raiton) Chidori** - (A-rank) (Lightning style) Thousand birds - this is an assassination jutsu utilizing lightning element, using which one can cut almost through anything. Due to the high speed of attack, the jutsu emits a sound like a thousand birds chirping which gave the technique its name. Because of the great amount of chakra needed to utilize the technique, the technique can only be used so many times during the day. Downside of this jutsu is that while user is attacking, he has troubles with dodging enemy's counterattack because of his tunnel vision. So this jutsu is most effective to kill immobilized opponent.  
**Kai: shougekiha** - (D-rank) Release: shock wave - Powerful pulse of chakra, that dispells genjutsu placed on the technique user and those around him.  
**Chouju giga **- (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.  
**Doton: toge ryudou** - (B-rank) Earth style: spiked land - My original ninjutsu. Does exactly what its name suggests: turn a big patch of land in front of the user into stone spikes.  
**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba** - (A-rank) Wind style: wind sword - A powerful blade of wind.  
**Chouju giga: tori: bakudan **- (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing: birds: bombs - allows to animate ink drawings, specifically a group of birds, turning them into bombs that explode upon destruction or user's command.  
**Doton: kyokan no sho osu** - (C-rank) Earth style: colossus' crashing palms - My original ninjutsu. Creates two giant stone pals that try to crash anything that happens to be between them.  
**Jinton: nijuuryuu funkei no seme** - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: twin dragon decapitating strike - Two dust dragons simultaneously attack the target from two directions. Usually used when the target is in the air and has less chances of dodging.  
**Doton: keisei** - (B-rank) Earth style: formation - jutsu of my own creation. Allows user to modify earth in a small area at his will. User need to stand on the ground to do this jutsu.  
**Mokuton: moku chuu no jutsu** - (bloodline jutsu) Wood style: wood pillar technique - Attacks the target with a wooden ram.  
**Jinchuuriki modu: onite** - (special jutsu) Jinchuuriki mode: demon arm - Naruto summon a cloak of Kyuubi's yoki around one of his arms.  
**Katon: gouryuuka no jutsu** - (B-rank) Fire style: great dragon fire technique - User exhales powerful fireball shapes as a dragon head.  
**Suiton: daibakufu no jutsu** - (A-rank) Water style: grand waterfall technique - Creates a column of water that will then erupt towards the target.  
**Hokage shiki jijun jutsu: kakuan nitten suishu** - (bloodline jutsu) Hokage style 60 years retirement technique: sanctuary enlightment enclosing palm - Allows the control over bijuu chakra released by a jinchuuriki.  
**Fuuton: kaze no kiri** - (B-rank) Wind style: wind drill - A drilling wind projectile.  
**Youton: ansen karyuudou** - (special jutsu) Lava style: dark river fire flow - A streaming mass of heated lava that attacks the target.  
**Kawarimi **- (E-rank) Change of body stance - substitutes user with nearby object.  
**Raiton: hiraishin** - (unknown rank) Lightning style: sparking electric needle - Shocks the target with a bolt of electricity upon physical contact.  
**Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu **- (C-rank) Fire style: great fireball technique - User exhales a fireball from his mouth.  
**Edo tensei** - (S-rank) Resurrection to the impure world - Summons a dead soul back to the realm of living by putting it into the body created via the sacrifice of another, living, human. Soul is 'trapped' within this body by a special sealing tag. If the tag is destroyed, the soul is released and the jutsu ends. (Yes, it's not like in the manga, but I think this version of the jutsu is more believable).  
**Youton: dai-goremu** - (special jutsu) Lava style: giant golem - Creates a golem from a mass of lava. User controls the golem, but must keep his hands in the concentration handseal. If the handseal is broken, the jutsu ends. The jutsu (because of the golem's size) requires so much chakra that even jinchuuriki needs to open fifth gate to have enough to keep the technique running for a minute and a half.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

**chapter 12: Invasion, part 1**

Just a couple of seconds before Sasuke would have been disqualified for being late, Kakashi brought him to the arena via **shunshin**. And so, the sixth match of the first round, Sasuke vs Gaara, took place... At first Uchiha tried his luck in defeating his opponent using just taijutsu, but it seemed to be useless against sand shield Gaara had. Then Sasuke decided to try fire jutsu on Gaara, but it too seemed to be fruitless... Sand jinchuuriki all this time just stood on the same spot, while his sand protected him and counterattacked Uchiha whenever he was close enough...

While many genins and civilians found the fight to spectacular, Naruto and Sachiko, who, like usual, was in his arms, as well as Sai, so far had only mild interest in the match as neither of the two fighters displayed any skills or tactics worth the attention. At least that was until Sasuke initiated **chidori** in his left hand, before charging towards Gaara. Neither sand shield, nor sand armor could protect Suna ninja form the lightning blade, so had Gaara not dodged at the last moment, Sasuke would have killed him instead of just cutting his shoulder... There was a moment of silence as nothing happened. Then Ichibi jinchuuriki screamed, unleashing a wave of sand, which Sasuke barely evaded. At the same time an 'ANBU' in white cloak who was stationed in the stadium section for high-profile guests gave a signal. Moment later white feathers started falling, making people fall asleep.

"We're under attack." Naruto stated in a quiet voice so that only his teammates and Ino-Shika-Chou trio could hear him. Temari and Kankuro made movements to initiate their attacks on Konoha genins in the competitors' booth, but very pushed out of it into the arena before they could do anything. As soon as those two landed, their sensei, who at the time was fighting Genma, ordered them to take Gaara and leave... Nodding to themselves, team five rushed to the spectators' tribunes to help Konoha ninja there fight the invaders. As the nearest tribune for them was the one where high-profile guests were, they headed there. Using shurikens they took down five Oto chuunin who were too busy fighting Iruka and a Ebizu to notice the attack from behind.

"**Kai: shougekiha!**" Three genin cried simultaneously, creating a powerful chakra shock wave that woke up everyone in fifty feet radius from the genjutsu-induced sleep. About the same time a group of two chuunin and five genin arrived to help with the evacuation. Seeing that there now were enough men to safely evacuate various daimyo, vassals and other potential clients to the safe houses, the jounin were about to go help their colleagues on other tribunes and on the arena, when Iruka noticed Genma ordering Sasuke to follow Temari, Kankurou and Gaara.

"Sai, I give you a B-rank mission of stopping Sasuke from his suicide mission. Use aerial approach method. The ground is to be considered hostile territory." The pale boy nodded and, opening one of his scrolls, quickly drew something.

"**Chouju giga!**" A big bird sprang from the scroll and Sai jumped on its back. "Mission accepted, Iruka-sensei." And he flew away then... Naruto and Sachiko looked at each other and nodded – it was time to go up one level. The two of them went to guard tribune front while chuunin were to attackers away from the tribune's back... Not a minute later two Suna chuunin landed on the tribune railing.

"What do we have here? Two little kids playing ninja?" There were about to do some jutsu, but the duo was faster.

"**Doton: tode ryoudo!**"

"**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!**" Naruto's earth technique forced them to jump into the air, where they were hit by Sachiko's wind blade... For the next couple of minutes there were no shinobi trying to get onto the tribune from their side, so the duo provided Konoha chuunin on the other side with some help by throwing kunai and shuriken at the group of Oto ninjas they were fighting... Suddenly the Kyuubi jinchuuriki felt tingling sensation on the edge of his field of awareness: someone was trying to attack him and _his_ Sachiko-chan from behind.

"Duck!" He shouted. The whitehead next to him knew well enough that if he felt something, it most likely was there, so she immediately followed the suit. Moment later a giant fist soared through the space previously occupied by the heads of the two genin... Not stopping their movements, the duo turned around and simultaneously kneed ridiculously large Oto ninja's gut, sending him down onto the arena floor, where he was finished by a Leaf jounin moments later. Neither of the two members of the team five noticed a small smile that appeared on one of the vassals faces, though, as they were looking the other way at the moment...

**~/ *** \~**

Finding Sasuke was not a very hard task for Sai – Uchiha couldn't spent even a couple of minutes without flaring his chakra like he was trying to impersonate a beacon. It, actually, was a wonder that no one tried to stop him, bar Gaara's teammates. Still, by the time the ink-user reached Sasuke's location, he was already in a fight with the Ichibi container. And Uchiha was losing the fight...

"**Chouju giga: tori: bakudan!**" Immediately a dozen of animated ink swallows flew out of the scroll and headed towards half-transformed jinchuuriki. Gaara raised his sandy arm to block the incoming attack, but the moment the swallows touched his arm, they exploded, sending him into a tree... Using this distraction, Sai flew down and captured Sasuke who was hiding behind another tree.

"Let me go, peasant!" The sharingan wielder shouted. "How dare you interfere with my mission!" In response Sai just hit a point on other boy's neck. Unfortunately, Uchiha was loud enough for Gaara to hear him and, thus, find their location.

"**My prey! You took my prey!**" Half-transformed jinchuuriki roared, seeing the ink bird rising up into the sky. "**Give... me... my... prey... back!**" Gaara thrust his sand-covered arm forward, launching lots of sand projectiles towards his offender. By some miracle Sai's bird managed to maneuver around all of the projectiles, which further enraged Ichibi jinchuuriki. Sand moved to cover the rest of redhead's body, turning him into miniature Shukaku. "**I... kill... you!**" Multiple mouths opened on the miniature beast's chest, sucking in a lot of air. Then ...it exhaled a strong gust of wind and sand... This attack was something the ink bird could not avoid, and so it was destroyed, leaving Sai, who got his left hand broken by sand projectiles during the previous attack, and unconscious Sasuke falling down towards the unforgiving earth.

"Damn!" Sai swore, as he tried to open the scroll with the 'spare' bird with just one hand. He finally succeeded only on his third attempt. "**Chouju giga!**" Moment later the ink-user was on the back of a large ink eagle... Not wasting any time, Sai flew towards falling Uchiha. Catching him with just one hand was hard, but nothing impossible, so, once Sasuke was lying on the ink bird's back, Sai headed away from the enraged Ichibi jinchuuriki...

**~/ *** \~**

Once the tribune was secured, Naruto and Sachiko were sent to help with the basements of the stadium. So, following chuunin's order, the duo headed towards the entrance to the nearest basement, that was hidden in the wall of one of the corridors connecting the stadium's atrium and tribunes. As soon as the two genin entered the dimly lit narrow tunnel, they heard sounds of fighting coming from the depths of the building.

"Let's go." The white-haired kunoichi said, encouraging the two of them to go deeper into the basements to help their comrades. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded and the two of them started running faster, soon ending up in the large boiler room that was situated several floors under the Kage booth. There three Konoha jounin were fighting two cells of Oto and Suna ninja, trying to prevent them from destroying the machinery and, possibly, blowing up the whole stadium. Naruto and Sachiko quickly hid behind pipes to think of the plan – just rushing into the fight would be a stupid idea.

"I have an idea." Naruto spoke after several seconds of thinking. "See that rock?" He pointed to the piece of the concrete beam that was lying on the floor. "I will crush it into dust for you to use." The whitehead nodded: this was the best plan they had so far, and it might actually work. Naruto nodded back and did a sequence of handseals. "OK than... **Doton: kyokan no sho osu!**" Two stone palms rose on each side of the beam, before coming together, crushing concrete between them into a fine dust, but also alerting everyone about duo's presence.

"**Jinton: nijuuryuu funkei no seme!**" Two dark-gray dust dragons rose into the air, before attacking nearest Oto ninja, who couldn't even blink before he was torn into two by the beasts, who immediately went for their next target. Leaf jounin were the first one to snap from the shock of seeing the attack and they immediately initiated the next round of the fight, sending their most powerful jutsu that could be used in the closed spaces at the remaining invaders...

A minute later and a severe wound on the arm of one of the Leaf jounin, all invaders had been dealt with. One of the jounin, using sign language, ordered the duo to follow his comrade, while he himself will be tending to the wounded. A round of nods later, Naruto ans Sachiko dashed after the jounin into one of the tunnels.

* * *

In the next several minutes they had visited three more large rooms, functions of which neither of the team five member would even try to guess, but those were empty, so, they continued further... Some more narrow corridors later, they came up to the closed door.

"OK, behind this door is the arena. I do not know what's the situation there, so be on guard." The jounin said at, at nods of the two genin, kicked the door open. It happened so that they were on the opposite side of the arena from the Kage booth, which was now partially destroyed, and on the roof above it there was a fight going on behind a purple barrier of some kind. The arena by now was more or less cleared from the invaders, so the jounin ordered Naruto and Sachiko to assist Konoha forces in the village, before **shunshin**'ing somewhere. The two members of the team five looked at the barrier, behind which they saw the Sandaime Hokage fighting someone. Then the duo looked at each other, silent question in their eyes: had the ANBU forgot the simplest way to disrupt the barrier technique?

"Shall we assist them?" Naruto asked. Of course they should for every ninja of Konoha had to protect their Hokage just as much as they had to protect the village itself. The white-haired kunoichi nodded and the two of them **shunshin**'ed to the roof towards the edge of the barrier, inside which Sandaime was fighting Orochimaru and two of his predecessors that somehow were alive again.

"You can do nothing there, genin." An ANBU in the white cloak snarled, not even turning his head to the newly arrived duo. "This barrier is impenetrable."

"You not need to brake it to destroy." Sachiko replied drawing her stilettos. "**Fuuton: kaze no yaiba!**" Before her words had completely sank into the heads of ANBU, she had unleashed an arc of cutting wind, that severed a support beam of the roof.

"**Doton: keisei!**" Just second later Naruto used roof tiles transformed into an earthen maces to crush another support beam. There was a loud cracking sound, and their side of the roof started sinking. Moment later the barrier burst like a bubble for it no longer had a stable base to be placed on.

"Take'em down!" An ANBU cell commander shouted, and his subordinates attacked the six-armed guy and the two-headed one, who were still trying to regain their balance on the careening roof... seeing that his plan for completely destroyed, Orochimaru ordered his two remaining ninja to retreat.

"You may have forced me to fall back, but I'm still leaving you these two..." The pale man gestured towards resurrected Shodai and Nidaime who were fighting both Sarutobi and the ANBU cell. "They won't stop even if I die, so... have fun with them, sensei." The snake sannin said, before disappearing from the roof via **shunshin**... At his moment, Shodai Hokage finally spotted Naruto and Sachiko, who still were on the roof, and, following his last command – destroy everything of Konoha – attacked them:

"**Mokuton: moku chuu no jutsu!**" A thick square wooden pillar grew from the roof, before, before twisting around itself and flinging out towards the two teens, taking such a path that dodging it would be ...unfavorable for them, as it would place them on the very edge of the roof...

'_Damn... This jutsu is very powerful... Neither I nor Sachiko-chan have any defensive moves that can block this technique. Looks like I will have to resort to using it..._' Naruto thought, before doing a concentration handseal with his left hand. "**Jinchuuriki modu: onite!**" Instantly a dark-orange yoki burst around his right arm, enveloping it in a 'glove'. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki thrust his right hand forward, and the yoki-made clawed 'glove' shot forward towards the fast approaching wooden ram, growing in size as it lengthened. Second later there was a loud crack as the wooden pillar, caught by the demon arm, spanned, leaving the blond shinobi with a sizable part of it in his hand... Unfortunately, the other part continued approaching the two genin as the resurrected Shodai continued his attack... Naruto and Sachiko were saved from Hashirama's jutsu when Sarutobi forced him on a defensive with a well-aimed **katon: gouryuuka** technique.

"**Suiton: daibakufu no jutsu!**" The resurrected Nidaime announced, as a great current of water washed the unprepared for such an advanced attack ANBU down, forcing the current Hokage to switch back to fighting his immediate predecessor to keep him from completing his task of destroying Konoha.

"So... You are Mito-chan's legacy..." Hashirama said, his eyes firmly on Naruto and his demon arm. "In this case you will have to be dealt with first. **Hokage shiki jijun jutsu: kakuan nitten-...**" The man couldn't finish the handseals for the jutsu as a giant fist made of dust and sand slammed into him, sending him flying backwards.

"Don't dare... you..." The white-haired kunoichi hissed angrily, glaring at the first Hokage. Naruto smiled briefly at how much his girlfriend carried about him, before deciding to press the current advantage in the fight by throwing the wood block he still held in his demon arm into the man. Of course, the Shodai Hokage wasn't going down that easy: a thick wooden shell rose around him, protecting him from the 'projectile' without even a dent appearing on it.

"Sachiko-chan, can you send a wind driller at the shield?" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki asked. His girlfriend just nodded and flashed through handseals.

"**Fuuton: kaze no kiri!**" The moment the white-haired kunoichi blew her jutsu towards Hashirama's wooden shell, her boyfriend finished his own sequence of handseals, unleashing one of his newest jutsu:

"**Youton: ansen karyuudou!**" Roof tiles around the blond shinobi melted, creating a mass of hot lava that shot towards its target. Wooden shell, behind which the Shodai Hokage was hiding at the moment, was already weakened by the ANBU attacks and Sachiko's wind projectile, and broke when the fire river slammed into it. More, the lava flow went further and burnt Hashirama's arms away, making the resurrected man temporary unable to do any techniques that required handseals – everyone knew that in a matter of seconds his arms will be regenerated because they all have already seen the same happening to Nidaime, who was resurrected the same way...

"**Katon: gouryuuka no jutsu!**" The ANBU cell commander shouted, unleashing a powerful fireball at the Shodai, but the first Hokage used sealless **kawarimi** to evade the jutsu. As he reappeared from his substitution, he was faced with two ANBU attacking him with their katana. Skillfully evading their blades while his body was repairing itself, Hashirama still missed the forth ANBU, who attacked him from behind with a **raiton: hiraishin**, effectively paralyzing him. The two operatives with katana cut the Shodai Hokage's arm at his shoulders, before jumping backwards. They sheathed their blades and simultaneously ran through handseals.

"**Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!**" Still under the effects of the lightning jutsu, Hashirama couldn't do anything to dodge two approaching fireballs and his body, and with the seal that bound his soul to the mortal plane, were burnt to ashes... Even normally stoic ANBU let out a sigh of relief when their opponent didn't come back. It seemed that even the **Edo tensei** jutsu could be canceled without resorting to high-level fuyunjutsu that would most likely cost user his life.

"Hokage-sama, you need to destroy the sealing tags Nidaime-sama has in his head. If you do that, he will not regenerate." The ANBU commander shouted to Sarutobi, who was barely fighting on a par with his predecessor... "Naruto-san, Sachiko-san, we are very thankful for you assisting us in this fight, but it is almost over and your help, is still needed around the village." He said, before joining his cell in assisting the Sandaime Hokage in destroying the resurrected Nidaime... The genin duo turned around get ready to leave the roof, when a loud inhuman scream of anger resounded across the village. Moment later a pillar of dusty-yellow yoki exploded in the forest not far from the village wall. When the pillar died down, those who were looking there, could see a giant tanuki that was Ichibi no Shukaku there, heading towards the village. And if one were to look closer, they could see that the one-tailed beast was trying to follow an ink bird that was flying away from it.

"That's Sai and... who's that? ...Sasuke!" the Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, looking at the bird. "We've got to help them!" His white-haired girlfriend looked at him.

"Are you crazy, Naruto-kun?" She asked. "I'm barely at fifty percent of chakra after the fights. And I can see that you are not much better. We can do nothing against a bijuu even if we were fully rested!"

"It'll be very risky, but I do have something that can slow it down. Plus if we do nothing, the other, who can fight it for real, won't be there fast enough to not let it inside the village. Imagine what devastation fighting a bijuu inside Konoha will cause!" The blond shinobi answered. Sachiko nodded slowly – the Hokage and ANBU were still busy with the Nidaime Hokage who was still 'alive' and fighting them, while jounin and chuunin from the arena had already went into the village to fight the invasion off

"O-OK..." She said unsurely.

"Let's go then." Picking his girlfriend's hand, Naruto **shunshin**'ed them to what was left from the village wall in the direction the Shukaku was approaching from. "Take this." He said, giving the whitehead a normal soldier's pill, while taking a modified one himself. Moment later a chakra exploded around him into a pyre – the pill forced first five of his inner gates open. He flashed through handseals, finishing with the concentration seal. "**Youton: dai-goremu!**" The wall, bar the stone the duo was standing on, melted into lava and took a vaguely-humanoid shape, thirty-something meters high. "I need you to protect us from the smaller sand attacks, Sachiko-chan." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki groaned under the strain of all the chakra and yoki he was using. When she nodded, he continued. "I can keep this technique running for about a hundred seconds. Once I run out of chakra, get us away form here."

"OK, Naruto-kun." The white-haired kunoichi said with another nod. Naruto nodded back and had his golem move to intercept the Ichibi.

* * *

That's all folks! Leave me a **review**.

* * *

The update for the "**_Pyro_**" story will be within a week, so... don't give up waiting for it.


	14. Invasion, part II, and the Aftermath

Hello, everyone, I'm finally back, and have the latest chapter of the "_**The Demon and the Ghost**_" for your entertainment. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**Hakkyou no Yami**, we discussed this via PM, so I see no point in talking about it here.  
**Naginator**, I also don't know that. But the whole idea of destroying the roof came from one of the stories on this site I read some time ago, coupled with my personal understanding of barrier techniques' inner workings.  
**fanficreader71**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, **eclipseX**, **sh8ad8ow**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **Twin Silver Dragon**, **Reishin Amara**, **OBSERVER01**, **Fez8745**, thanks!  
**Tristan76**, as far as I remember, Naruto's seal is on his stomach, so he pulls elemental fusion from here and not out of his ass. =P  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, hope, you liked the fight.  
**RE5 forever**, thanks. As for the HP stories, I write some ideas from time to time. Right now **NARUHAREM FOREVA** took upon himself expanding one of my plot bunnies into a real story. But I myself won't write any big stories yet - even if I have a couple of ideas - I'm already working on four epics, so my time and inspiration is a bit limited (also, I still need to study for my diploma).  
**ranma hibiki**, heh.  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, read and see...

*** Jutsu list**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**Youton: dai-goremu** - (special jutsu) Lava style: giant golem - Creates a golem from a mass of lava. User controls the golem, but must keep his hands in the concentration handseal. If the handseal is broken, the jutsu ends. The jutsu (because of the golem's size) requires so much chakra that even jinchuuriki needs to open fifth gate to have enough to keep the technique running for a minute and a half.  
**Fuuton: renkuudan **- (?-rank) Wind style: drilling air projectile - User expels a ball of comressed air that explodes upon hitting something.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

_"O-OK..." Sachiko said unsurely._

_"Let's go then." Picking his girlfriend's hand, Naruto **shunshin**'ed them to what was left from the village wall in the direction the Shukaku was approaching from. "Take this." He said, giving the whitehead a normal soldier's pill, while taking a modified one himself. Moment later a chakra exploded around him into a pyre – the pill forced first five of his inner gates open. He flashed through handseals, finishing with the concentration seal. "**Youton: dai-goremu!**" The wall, bar the stone the duo was standing on, melted into lava and took a vaguely-humanoid shape, thirty-something meters high. "I need you to protect us from the smaller sand attacks, Sachiko-chan." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki groaned under the strain of all the chakra and yoki he was using. When she nodded, he continued. "I can keep this technique running for about a hundred seconds. Once I run out of chakra, get us away form here."_

_"OK, Naruto-kun." The white-haired kunoichi said with another nod. Naruto nodded back and had his golem move to intercept the Ichibi._

**Chapter 13: Invasion and the Aftermath**

The one-tailed beast, seeing something big, and potentially dangerous, approach it, switched its attention to it: it could chase the ink bird with its pray later. The Ichibi let out a mighty roar, but the lava monster with two piny humans on its left shoulder didn't even flinch. Letting out another roar, Shukaku drew lots of the air into its massive body through additional mouths that appeared on its torso, before blowing a giant ball of compressed air – **Fuuton: renkuudan** jutsu was a weakened version of this one – towards its opponent.

The golem raised its tentacle-like arm to block the incoming projectile. There was a large explosion that destroyed golem's arm, but moment later a new arm started growing. And the clouds of dust that were raised by the explosions reformed themselves into three large dragons that immediately charged towards the bijuu on the loose. At the same time, the golem struck the ground with its 'healthy' arm, sending a seismic wave towards the Ichibi, trying to make it lose its balance. It worked a bit as the one-tailed beast had to make a step backwards. But it was all, and not a second later it destroyed all three dust dragons with a single swing of its arm...

"Damn!" Naruto hissed, seeing the beast they were fighting against readying itself for a jump. The golem was just too slow to get out of its way, and trying to withstand the force of a bijuu was quite a stupid idea, but, it seemed, the only one. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki made the golem raise its arm to block the ramming attack from the Ichibi, and the lava construct was able do to that just in time to ease the impact of the one-tailed demon. Still, the golem was send backwards good four dozen meters and almost destroyed. Shukaku too wasn't unscathed as the contact with lava melted its side.

"**DIE PITIFUL HUMANS!**" The Ichibi roared, simultaneously preparing to launch another wind ball. This time almost at point blank range – golem, especially just recovering one, wouldn't be able to block such an attack... Sachiko saw that, and send a low-power wind blade to intercept the bijuu's projectile before it got too close to them. The resulting explosion did no damage, other than enraging Shukaku further. And with Naruto's time running low they were in a desperate need for someone to replace them in the fight. The white-haired kunoichi could see Jiraya the sannin approaching them, while riding a giant toad with twin katana on its back, but the man still wouldn't be able to get there by the time her boyfriend's chakra will run out...

"Dammit!" Sachiko launched the most powerful wind blade she could right now – and it actually did some visible damage to the bijuu. Not that the 'wound' didn't heal moments later – but it only served to make the one-tailed demon angrier. And, abandoning self-preservation, the Ichibi rammed into the half-reconstructed golem again, completely destroying the construct. It was pure luck that neither Naruto nor Sachiko, both of whom lost their balance, didn't touch lava that was the golem. Still, they both hit the ground quite hard, and the white-haired kunoichi was sure that she was in no condition to successfully perform **shunshin** on both of them immediately. Or even just on herself...

"**I shall devour you now, fleshbags!**" The Ichibi roared, raising its giant arm to crush two teen on the ground. The beast already began moving, when a large shadow appeared over it. Moment later giant toad dropped with a loud battle cry between it and the teens, cutting demon's arm in the process.

"**This is sand...**" The toad observed as the cut arm began falling apart. "**Now I will need to sharpen my blades.**" Jiraya, who was standing on the toad's head let out a silent growl.

"Gamahiro, I think that saving lives is more important than your katana." The toad nodded.

"**Indeed it is, master Jiraya, but with blunt weapons I'm not that effective in the fight.**" Gamahiro replied.

"OK, OK..." The toad sannin replied, waving his hand. "Let's just do our job." Then the man turned to the teen on the ground. Naruto was already unconscious – his body was still human and could handle only so much of strain. "You two did a fine job, but I don't think that staying there will be safe for you. The hospital was never damaged nor it was ever captured by the invaders. You can go there." Sachiko nodded and, wrapping her hands around her boyfriend's body, performed the **shunshin** technique to get the hell out of there. "Now we can get serious, Gamahiro." The white-haired man said as he drew another set of red marks on his face. "And where are the ANBU when you need them the most?.."

* * *

The hospital was flooded with wounded people – mostly genin and chuunin with some civilians that were unlucky not to get to the safe houses in time – and seeing that they weren't wounded badly, Sachiko and Naruto were given some corner in the corridors. And that suited the white-haired girl just fine as right now, after what they lived through this day, she wasn't going to be separated from Naruto... And as her own exhaustion was great, Sachiko soon fell asleep, with her arms still around her boyfriend.

**~/ *** \~**

Not an hour after the invading forces were defeated, the council meeting was called. After different reports about the damages done and the casualties the ninja forces of the village suffered, it was decided to deal with the chuunin exam results too – the clan heads and other councilmen were just too lazy to come here again to deal with that...

"I nominate Uchiha Sasuke to be promoted to the rank of chuunin." Said one of the civilian councilmen. The Sandaime Hokage sighed tiredly: no real surprise there – someone had to say this.

"I second this." Another civilian said.

"I veto this nomination." Sarutobi said. "Someone who can't show on time for his own exam is not ready to be a chuunin of Konohagakure no Sato." Silence. No one dared to say anything against this argument. "I myself would like to nominate Nara Shikamaru. He showed exceptional strategic skills as well as ingenious usage of terrain to his advantage."

"Seconded." Hiashi Hyuuga said. There was a pause to see if anyone had an argument against nominating Shikamaru. Since no one had anything, the voting started:

"Everyone in favor?" All shinobi council, bar Nara Shikaku who couldn't vote this time, and some of the civilians raised their hands. "Everyone opposed?" No one. "Congratulations, Nara-san. Your son will make a fine chuunin for the village." Koharu said. "Any other nominations?"

"It's not a nomination for the promotion, but I feel that this is even more important." One of the more knowledgeable of shinobi business civilian councilmen spoke. "I wish to call for the execution of one Uzumaki Naruto for the treason. That d..." The man caught Hokage's glare and change to more ...neutral 'nickname' for the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. "That brat sided with the invaders and destroyed the part of the village wall to let them in." Civilians immediately started shouting their approvals. Seeing that the situation was quickly spiraling out of his control, Sarutobi released some killing intent, shutting the civilians up.

'_Clever bastard... He waited 'till near the end of the meeting, when everyone, especially shinobi members of the council, will be too tired to care much about the outcome, to raise the question..._' The elderly village leader thought. "That will not happen." The Hokage stated firmly. "I may be old, but I'm neither blind nor stupid. It is true that young Naruto used a part of the village wall as the raw material for his jutsu, but he did it so to help Konoha: with the golem he created, he managed to halt the one-tailed beast before it could enter the village. It was very brave, even if quite stupid, thing to do, and it, quite possibly, saved a lot of lives and prevented greater damages to the village. You will not punish him for this." The last sentence was said with such power behind the word, that everyone in the council chamber knew better than even thinking about going against Hokage's wish. "He, though, will have to repair the damage he caused." Sarutobi took a deep breath as he stopped speaking.

"Any other important matters to be addressed to the council?" Homura asked.

"Well, we still need to see to the stadium being repaired, so I propose..." Akimichi Chouza spoke, making several councilmen groan – this meeting was going last forever!..

**~/ *** \~**

Naruto woke up a little before sunrise the next morning - thanks to the mass of yoki sealed inside of him, he could recover from severe chakra exhaustion in a matter of hours, where it would take a normal ninja a couple of days... The Kyuubi jinchuuriki found himself seated comfortably against his girlfriend, with his head resting on her chest, her arm around his torso and her head resting on top of his. Not wanting to wake Sachiko-chan up, but needing to visit certain ..._places_, the blond shinobi summoned single shadow clone and substituted himself with the doppelganger.

Sometime later, when he was finished – and also got the two of them some food from the mess for breakfast – Naruto returned to where Sachiko was sleeping, hugging his clone to her chest. He dismissed the clone, smiling involuntary at how the white-haired girl moaned disappointingly at the loss of her 'teddy bear'. Setting the things on the floor, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki sat next to his girlfriend and moved her into sitting in his lap. The girl, still asleep, leaned into him and relaxed, while he wrapped his hands around her.

"Sweet dreams, my princess." Naruto whispered, kissing his girlfriend on the top of her head.

* * *

Sachiko was now awake, even if she was yet to open her eyes. She knew that sometime during the night Naruto woke up and switched their positions as she now was in his lap with his arms around her belly and his morning wood pressed between her ass cheeks. Not that she mind it in any way. She, actually, liked the things this way, which she immediately expressed by wiggling her ass a bit...

Finally opening her eyes, the white-haired kunoichi found out that they were still in the same hospital corridor she brought them yesterday evening, so it was impossible to say what time it was now, but her inner clock was telling her that it was about eight in the morning...

"Good morning S'-chan." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, kissing her on top of her head. In response, Sachiko just moved so that she was now sitting sideways in his lap, and, turning her head to face him, kissed him on his lips. Naruto eagerly responded by kissing her back...

"Ahem." Two teens instantly broke the kiss and, blushing madly, turned to see who had interrupted them – Iruka-sensei who had a bit bloodied bandages on his left leg and a quite nasty bruise on his face. A little behind him stood Sai, who had his left hand in the cast. "Good to see you unharmed and awake. I've heard quite a stories about your adventures yesterday." The jounin commented. "Anyway, you can return to pleasing each other later. Hokage-sama wishes to see our team." The two teen nodded and stood up, with Naruto picking the food he had bought before up and giving half of it to his girlfriend.

"Let's go then." The blond shinobi said as he and Sachiko-chan headed towards the exit from the hospital, followed closely by their sensei and third teammate.

**~/ *** \~**

"You wanted to see us, Hokage-sama?" Iruka asked as he and his three genin entered the office. Sarutobi, who looked quite tired – he was just too old to be both a fighter and the administrator of the ninja village, it seemed – nodded.

"Yes, thank you Iruka-san for coming here on such a short notice." The elderly man paused for a moment, before continuing. "I'm very pleased with your performance during the invasion... Sai, you saved a promising ninja, as well as helped with spotting enemy's remaining positions within the village. For that I'd like to award you a mark of distinction – the second one will see you being promoted to the rank of chuunin – and the equivalent of two B-rank mission payments." The pale boy bowed and took the mark and the paychecks from Sarutobi.

"Thank you, lord Hokage." Hiruzen nodded and turned to the only female of the team five.

"Sachiko, you showed both great fighting and tactical skills, as well as a level of leadership that I want to see in all of our chuunin. Congratulations." The Hokage said, giving a chuunin vest to the white-haired kunoichi. "Also, for performing above and beyond what was required by you rank, I award you with the equivalent of three B-rank mission payments."

"T-Thank you, Hokage-sama." Sachiko said with a bow as she accepted the paychecks and the vest.

"Now onto you, Naruto. You did more than your teammates for the village during the invasions, but some of you actions were ...immature, so while I will not deny you strength nor your ability to be a leader, I do not feel that you are ready to be a chuunin." Sarutobi said. "Also, while you did halt the advance of the Shukaku, for which the village is grateful to you, in doing so you damaged the village wall, which weakened our defenses. Your punishment for that will be repairing the damage you caused."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki said, while looking down.

"Still, for your services to the village, I award you a mark of distinction and an equivalent of one B-rank mission payment." The Hokage said, passing the mark and the paycheck to the boy. Naruto just nodded, too stunned to respond verbally. "Now... We won and defended our village, but we have no time for the celebration yet. The damage invading forces dealt us is heavy and needs to be repaired as soon as possible." The team five nodded in agreement. "Naruto, for the time being you will be working on repairing the part of the village wall you used for your golem." The blond shinobi nodded again. "Bear..." An ANBU with the said mask appeared next to the Hokage's table. "...Will assist you."

"I'm informed that you know **shunshin** no jutsu, Naruto-san." The ANBU said, his voice distorted by the mask. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki nodded. "In that case, meet me at the E-18 section of the wall in five minutes." With that the ANBU disappeared from the office. Naruto made a handseal and followed the suit.

"As for the rest of the team five, you will, like the rest of the teams, perform D-rank missions in assistance to repairing the village." Sarutobi said.

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

**~/ *** \~**

It was now two weeks since the invasion. Naruto already had finished with the wall he had to repair and rejoined his team on the D-ranks of repairing the village... The team five, a bit sleepy from having to get up early in the morning, was sitting under a large tree in the village central part – their temporary meeting spot – when Iruka arrived.

"Good morning, team." The jounin said, himself about as sleepy as his team.

"Mornin', sensei." Two genin and one chuunin replied. "What are our missions for today?" Sachiko continued.

"Actually... Hokage-sama received a B-rank mission that requested specifically our team. It seems that you managed to catch an eye of one of the Daimyo's vassals. So, we are excused from the morning missions for the time being." Iruka replied. "Now, we will start your training for the mission."

"What skill are we going to learn, Iruka-sensei?" Sai asked, making the jounin smile.

"You are going to learn ballroom dancing."

* * *

That's all folks. Leave me a **review**!

Also, right now I have exams, so do not expect any update for my stories till the beginning of the febrary. Though, I suppose, you may want to know that "_**Pyro**_" will be updated first as I plan on posting two next chapters of "_**Konoha's young sage**_" at the same time or, at least, with just a short time frame between them.


	15. White queen

Hello, everyone. I bring you goon news: "The Demon and the Ghost" story isn't dead - even if it wasn't updated for six month due to a bad case of writer's block - and here's the newest chapter. Not exactly the best one, and a rushed one (but there is a lime in the chapter to 'balance things out'), but I promised that the next chapters will be better. So read and enjoy?

*** Review response**:  
**Naginator**, when I won't matter to them that they are. Near the very end of the story.** Colorful Mephistopheles**, yes, they will. =)  
**RE5 forever**, **sh8ad8ow**, **fanficreader71**, **Reishin Amara**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, **Hanzo of the Salamander**, **eclipseX**, **OBSERVER01**, **ranma hibiki**, **Impstar**, **Emeraldfox5723**, **Lazruth**, **nicklaren**, **QuietStorm Aka Narusake-Koi**, **mattcun**, thank you, folks!  
**Tristan76**, Naruto could have raised the golem out of the ground - slower and a bit more difficult, but possible.  
**ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **Still Not Dead Yet**, Naruto will be promoted in the next chapter. =)

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own "_**Naruto**_" in any shape or form.

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

_This chapter is yet to be beta-read.  
_

* * *

**Chapter 14: White queen**

It took the team five almost two weeks to complete their 'special' training in ballroom dancing, and now it was the time for them to depart towards the Gatsuchi city, where the ball would be held. The team would be traveling there light, as the Daimyo's vassal was also supplying them with the costumes, or, in Sachiko's case, dresses, they would need.

The team was leaving sometime after breakfast, so everyone was allowed to sleep in a little that morning, and Naruto and Sachiko were most glad for that, and spent this extra hour together in their bed – they were yet to go past sleeping together half-naked, but they loved doing so very much and did so whenever they could... But the duty was calling, and the two left their house and headed to the village eastern gates, where their team was assembling. As they were running towards the gates through the forest that surrounded their house, a pair of rabbits ran across their route, but the duo ignored the critters and continued on their way, never recognizing the event as a bad omen...

Naruto and Sachiko were second to arrive to the meeting point – their sensei was already there – but they didn't have to wait for long, as their third team member, Sai, joined them mere five minutes later. As soon as everyone was there, Iruka once again instructed them about what their mission was – protect the guests of the ball from a possible bandit attack, while pretending to be guests themselves – and what they were to do in different cases. Once the briefing was over, the team left Konohagakure no Sato.

Gatsuchi city they were heading to was located in south-east part of the Fire country, near the border with the River country, and it was surrounded by forest that were home for more than one group of bandits – local samurai forces weren't exactly strong and couldn't deal with the thugs... That was why the vassal asked for a shinobi team to protect his guests at the ball.

* * *

It took team five three days of traveling at chuunin pace to reach their destination, and they still had a couple of days in reserve. The city was built mostly in wood and looked like it had seen better days, but otherwise looked good.

At the city gates the team was met by group, consisting of the local lord - Daimyo's vassal - several of his grandees and a platoon of samurai. The Daimyo's vassal, Kawaru – pudgy man with small sly eyes and practically no hair on his face other than his mustaches – welcomed them and, after a short tour through the city, had them housed into the best hotel out there.

The next morning one of the vassal's servants, accompanied by four samurai, came to the hotel to take the team five to the atelier – even though it was located not two blocks away from the hotel. Iruka insisted that all three males of the team wear western style black suits with white shirts: suits were good for both dancing and having concealed weapons on them, plus those looked rather good on them. Sachiko, on the other hand, wasn't limited like that with what she could choose to were at the ball, and her choice fell onto a white silk dress that hugged her curves nicely. The said dress had a cut on the left side going up to the waistline, making it clear that the white-haired girl would have to go commando to the ball – the fact that she used to tease her boyfriend mercilessly in the evening...

* * *

The day before the ball the team spent getting acquainted with the layout of the part of the vassal's palace, where the guests would be allowed, and with the layout of the staff rooms. Not a fun way to spend entire day, but this was needed for the mission, so neither of Iruka's students complained... The next day, just after five in the afternoon, the team was to arrive to the palace to begin their 'undercover' mission.

And they arrived, males in their suits, all looking like men from the higher society, while Sachiko, in her white dress, was simply stunning, like a fairy tail princess, making (almost) all males envy the blond shinobi whom she had as her chosen partner... Once inside the palace, the team broke apart and started playing their roles of the vassal's guests, waiting for the real guests to arrive. Surprisingly enough, it took only an hour for everyone to arrive, and as soon as the final guest was there, Kawaru made a speech, which, most likely, no one was listening to, opening the ball.

As soon as the first song started playing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki, acting like a gentleman he was, invited his white-haired girlfriend for a dance. And Sachiko, of course, accepted his invitation, barely restraining herself from dropping this 'noble act' and dragging _her_ blond onto the dancing floor. Next to them there was Iruka-sensei with some noble lady of about his age, while Sai chose to entertain guests with talents of an artist and, thus, didn't dance... Neither member of the team five noticed two pairs of the eyes watching Sachiko intently. One pair of this eyes belonged to Kawaru, while the other to his younger, and not prettier, 'clone'.

Soon, couple of dances later, the people started switching their partners, and vassal's son, much to her displeasure, tried to have a dance with Sachiko. Thankfully for the girl, her sensei saw the thing and asked her for a dance, protecting her from an unpleasant man for the time being. Though, the expression on vassal's son's face was saying that he wasn't done trying with whatever he wanted to do with the white-haired kunoichi...

For the next hour or so, Naruto and Iruka-sensei were making sure that their female teammate was safe from the leering noble, much to his (and his father's) annoyance. At about seven fifteen in the things took turn for the worse: much like the mission description said it could happen, a fairly large group of bandits attacked the palace.

"Team!" Iruka shouted over women screaming and samurai guard telling the guests to move to the safe locations, while summoning kunai into his hands from hidden holsters on his forearms. "Battle code 'Serpens'!" A short way to tell that the thugs were attacking from the gardens of the palace. The team knew what they were to do in this case, so there was no need for any more words. Upon hearing their sensei, Naruto hardened his skin with a **doton: domu** ninjutsu and started attacking the bandits unfortunate enough to be close to him with his powerful taijutsu moves, while Sachiko drew her stilettos from the genjutsu-masked holsters on her thighs and used them to fight a trio of sword-wielding thugs away from old noble ladies... Sai had things much easier than his teammates, as all he had to do was to animate the many drawings he did today and leave everything to them, only paying attention that no bandit sneaked up on those he was protecting...

There was quite a lot of bandits, and even if none of them came even close to samurai's or shinobi's level of power, their numbers made sure that both palace guards and the team five were occupied by them in the foreseeable future... And having to protect the guests of the ball, the four ninja had to spread out in the hall. Exactly what the 'dark forces' of the day needed. Kawaru with his son – they remained in hall as if overseeing their guests being evacuated to the safe places – approached Sachiko.

"Kunoichi-san, with most my guards gone to keep my guests safe, I need someone to escort me and my son to my bunker in the basement of the palace – I know that us staying there will make your task of fighting bandits much harder." The older noble said, while the younger one kept leering at the white-haired girl... Sachiko knew _that_ something was fishy there, but since the request was within mission parameters, she couldn't deny it.

"Very well." She said with a small sigh. "Show me the way." ...A few corridors and some stairs later, they stopped in front of heavy metal doors that obviously were the bunker the vassal was talking about. Opening the said doors, the white-haired kunoichi gestured for the nobles she was escorting to enter. She just wasn't expecting to be pulled into the bunker as well, before the doors closed... "What is the meaning of this?" Sachiko demanded, eying the vassal angrily, while watching the four samurai guarding the door from the corner of her eyes.

"Shut up and accept your fate, girl: you're mine now." Vassal's son said, trying to grab kunoichi's hand. He, of course, failed as the white-haired girl jumped back.

"You will not leave this room until you marry my Sakato-kun. Be honored that you are chosen to be his wife." Kawaru added. Sachiko crossed her arms – and she still had her stilettos in her hands – on her chest.

"As an active-duty shinobi I'm forbidden to marry without Hokage's approval." She said in a serious tone, before adding, while looking at Sakato. "Not that I would marry you even if I could." The words seemed to almost bring the 'boy' to tears.

"Surely, you don't mean that." The vassal replied. "Sakato-kun is a very handsome young man..." The white-haired kunoichi snored there. "...With a lot of money, who will become the next lord of this province... How can you not want to be his wife, girl?"

"I will not marry someone I don't love and that is final." Sachiko said, her arms still crossed. "And just so that you know, you can't stop me from leaving this room..."

"You are very full of yourself, girl." Kawaru said, trying to grab the girl, but failing miserably at that. "These doors can withstand your explosive tags without even a scratch: nothing enter or leave this room without my permission." The Konoha kunoichi glared at the men in front her: surely they didn't think that brick walls could stop a dust elementalist? "So, marry my Sakato-kun, or else we will see, how long can you last there before you change your mind." Sachiko sighed.

"I will tell you this only once more: I will not marry someone I don't love... Also, like I said, if I wanted to escape, you wouldn't be able to stop me... But since my cavalier is already on the other side of these doors, I will play the princess who needs to be saved. Just hope you didn't make him angry: demons tend to appear when he is." Almost as soon as the white-haired kunoichi finished, as obscured sound of metal hitting metal could be heard through the doors, followed by several more

"See, these doors won't let anybody in." The vassal said arrogantly, as the sounds continued for several more seconds, before ceasing. There were several moments during nothing happened, before a wave of fearsome chakra passed through the bunker, almost making the nobles to wet themselves.

"You have woken the beast up." Sachiko commented, absolutely not affected by Kyuubi's yoki.

"What you talking about, girl?" The vassal demanded, trying to look fearless, even though he was scared to death. "Nothing can break through these doors. No matter what is on the other side, it won't help you, girl." The white-haired kunoichi shook her head.

"I wouldn't be so sure." At that very moment something hit the door, causing five claw-shaped bulges appear, much to nobles' horror. Another hit later, five gigantic fiery claws made of nine-tails' yoki broke through the door, before gripping and, then, yanking it... True to vassal's words, the door was truly of the highest quality – it wasn't ripped off its hinges... It was ripped with them, as the wall wasn't nearly as strong and broke under the titanic strength of the 'Kyuubi's arm'... As soon as the door was out of the way, Naruto in his jinchuuriki mode appeared in the aperture.

"**Give me my Sachiko-chan back.**" He growled at the nobles. Samurai jumped to protect their bosses, but a single glare from the semi-demonic blond was enough to have them running for their lives. Another glare, and the nobles were rooted to the place they were standing at, with their pants clearly showing that the two had wet themselves. Now, with everyone standing between him and his girlfriend gone, Naruto approached Sachiko and gave her his un-Kyuubified hand, which she gladly accepted. The pair gracefully left the bunker then – with the blond shinobi still keeping his jinchuuriki mode running, just in case... As they were returning to the team's meeting point, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was thinking of the ways to make those awful nobles pay for trying to lay their dirty hands on his white queen.

**~/ *** \~**

For the next several days, even after they returned back to Konoha, Sachiko was not herself, and even the old man Hokage assuring her that her attempted kidnappers would be punished most severely by the Lord of the Fire country didn't help her much... Yes, the whole mission was the plot of the vassal to get his son married to a pretty and strong kunoichi Sachiko was - or so it seemed from the results of Iruka's interrogation of the bandits' leader.

Hokage had even sent Sachiko to Inochi for some psychological help, but that didn't much, other than revealing that what was tormenting the whitehead wasn't the attempted kidnapping, even if it was 'uncovered' by it. And the girl was quite adamant at keeping what exactly that was to herself...

* * *

Naruto was sitting on the edge of his bed, reading one of his jutsu scrolls as he waited for his girlfriend to finish showering and join him for the night. Somehow, still, he managed to get too absorbed in his reading to notice the white-haired girl enter the bedroom... So her pushing him onto the bed and and kissing him fiercely and passionately came as a bit of surprise to him, but once he got over his surprise, he eagerly responded to his girlfriend's kiss. For the next several minutes the two were snogging like there was no tomorrow, but then Sachiko suddenly broke their kisses and moved her topless form south so that she was on her knees in front of the bed and between her boyfriend's legs, her face just a couple of inches away from his – hidden by his boxers – erection.

"Sachiko-chan, wh... ?" Naruto was about to ask what she was doing... Well, no 'what', but more likely 'why now', but the white-haired kunoichi didn't give him a chance to finish.

"Hush you, Naru-kun." She said, as she pulled his boxers down, a bit too fast maybe, baring her boyfriend's member. He wasn't _that_ big, about six inches long a little less than one thick, but then again, they both were still growing, and had several years before their bodies would be completely mature... Here, Sachiko paused for a moment, collecting her will to continue: she was afraid a bit of what she was about to do. And the though of having an intercourse now was scaring her even more so, but, especially after what almost happened on the last mission, her desire to be 'marked' as Naruto's was stronger than ever, and giving him a blowjob was a good temporary compromise between this desire and her fear of giving her virginity up...

The white-haired kunoichi cautiously ran her fingers along Naruto's hard length from its base towards the tip, making him breath out loudly from the pleasant sensation. More confident in what she was doing, Sachiko ran her fingers along her boyfriend's cock again, but this time she also leaned forward and ran her tongue on the opposite side of his dick, getting her first 'taste' of the physical love. And judging by the sounds the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was making, she was doing a good job in making him feel good... Once she reached the tip of his cock, Sachiko swirled her tongue around the tip, causing the blond under her moan in pleasure, while she absentmindedly noted that the act so far wasn't repulsive to her at all...

Abandoning whatever fears she had left, the white-haired girl took the head of Naruto's cock into her mouth, where she continued working on it with her tongue, but also adding some slight sucking now. And the sounds her beloved was making were assuring her she was doing alright... Taking more of him into her mouth, Sachiko continued sucking her boyfriend's cock, still not finding anything repulsive about what she was doing...

"S-Sachiko-chan... I'm... a-ah! I'm going to... cum." She was sucking for about four minutes by the time Naruto gave her the warning. Not sure what to expect now – no she had read about sex in the books, but the life tended to differ from the fiction – Sachiko took most of his length out of her mouth, leaving only the head inside, and continued sucking and running her tongue around it. "A-a-ah!" The Kyuubi jinchuuriki let out a loud moan that sounded a bit like a roar, and exploded into his girlfriend's mouth, giving her a mouthful of his seed... Sachiko sat there, motionless till she was sure he finished cumming. When he had finished, she, carefully not to spill any of his cum, took his cock out of her mouth and tasted his 'gift'. It was a bit salty to her, and would have been much tastier, were it more sweet, but all in all the white-haired girl liked the taste... They _will_ be doing this again!.. Swallowing the cum, Sachiko licked her boyfriend's cock clean, before rolling Naruto onto his left side. She than lay behind him, her arms around his chest, her chin on his shoulder and her naked breasts with hard nipples – the whole thing had her turned on very much – pressed into his back.

"Good night, _m_y Naru-kun." She whispered into his ear, before kissing him on his cheek and, after snuggling even closer to him, falling asleep, leaving Naruto to think about what had just transpired.

* * *

That's all, folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


	16. Lucky girl

Hello, everyone, here is the newest chapter of the "_**the Demon and the Ghost**_" story. Enjoy!

*** Review response**:  
**fanficreader71**, **eclipseX**,** nobother**, **sh8ad8ow**, **Elemental Dragon Swordman**, **ChaosLord SilverLink310**, **OBSERVER01**, thanks, folks!  
**Tristan76**, who said, Naruto isn't returning the favor, eh?  
**Still Not Dead Yet**, ^_^

*** Jutsu List**:  
**Shunshin **- (D-rank) Body flicker - 'teleportation' jutsu.  
**Chouju giga **- (B-rank) Super beast imitation drawing - allows to animate ink drawings.  
**Doton: keisei** - (B-rank) Earth style: formation - jutsu of my own creation. Allows user to modify earth in a small area at his will. User need to stand on the ground to do this jutsu.  
**Jinton: jinryuukamu** - (bloodline jutsu) Dust style: dust dragon bite - creates a dragon head from the dust. the head will fly forward and byte the first thing in its way.  
**Chikara no tou** - (samurai technique) Chakra blade - Crescent-shaped cutting wave of chakra, released from samurai's blade.

* * *

**Disclaimer**: I DO NOT own Naruto or its characters

"speaking"  
'_thinking_'  
"**speaking of higher beings** / **Naruto while using ****yoki** / **jutsus** / **Iruka's 'demon head' speaking**"  
'_**thinking of higher beings**_'

* * *

_This chapter is yet to be beta-read.  
_

* * *

**chapter 15: Lucky girl**

The next morning Sachiko woke up to the most pleasant sensation she had ever felt. Still sleepy and with her eyes closed, she tried to reach for her boyfriend, only to find out that he wasn't in the bed next to her. This, along with a powerful jolt of pleasure, originating in her nether regions, awoke the white-haired kunoichi completely.

"Naru-kun..." She moaned out, her eyes closing back in pleasure that was assaulting her senses. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki looked up from between her legs.

"Good morning, Sachiko-chan." He said, before returning to licking her pussy enthusiastically. ...Not a couple of minutes later his ministrations brought his lover to her release, and, after drinking her cum, he continued licking her nether lips for more... And no matter how good the continuous orgasm felt for Sachiko, this was wearing her out, and there still were things she needed to do today. So she gently pushed her lover away from her core, before pulling him up onto herself and kissing him passionately – for the whitehead this seemed to be the easiest and fastest way to tell Naruto that he had done enough and more. And, maybe she was a pervert or something, but she found the taste of her own juices to be nice, at least when she tasted them from the lips of her beloved... Rolling them over, so that she was now the one on top, Sachiko broke the kiss and looked into Naruto's eyes.

"Good morning, Naru-chan." She said in whisper, sitting up, her nether lips pressed to his rock-hard erection – she had pulled pulled his boxers off him while they were kissing and he was on still on top. Loving the sensation, she rubbed their sexes together, making them both moan in pleasure. "As much as I would love to in the bed with you the whole day, Naru-chan, there are other things to be done..." Sachiko smiled a bit, seeing the pout on her lover's face: he enjoyed these moments of intimacy just as much as she did. "But we can always be naughty later." The whitehead added. Leaning forward, she placed a loving kiss on his lips, before getting off him and heading to the bathroom...

* * *

Some fifty minutes later Sachiko was sitting in the Yamanaka clan's main house's guestroom, waiting for her last session with Inoichi to start. So far, the man was a bit late from his shift in the interrogation department – most likely because the man decided to stop by some bar to relax a little after a tiresome night at work.

"Oh, hi there, Sachiko-chan!" Said Ino, who entered the room as she was returning to her bedroom. "Here for your session with tou-san?" The whitehead just nodded. "I think he'll be late a bit more: there was a group of new important prisoners delivered to the HQ yesterday for interrogation, so he had a lot of work this night, especially with his partner being on leave till the end of the week." Sachiko nodded again: it seems that she'll have to wait.

"And you're back from training?" She asked the Yamanaka heiress.

"Yeah, Asuma-sensei let us finish earlier today, 'cause we are getting a C-rank outside of the village this afternoon." Normally, the bearded jounin trained them till lunch, and an hour later the team was in the Hokage tower for their daily mission.

"Good luck then." The white-haired kunoichi said to her fried.

"Thank you." Ino replied. "But I still wish my prince charming was there, on my team, ready to save me, should the things go wrong." Sachiko blushed a bit, as she thought about her own prince charming and what they did both yesterday evening and this morning. The platinum-blond girl noticed this, but before she could start teasing her friend, Sachiko spoke:

"Ino-chan, I know, you like Sasuke, but he doesn't seem to be interested in girls like that right now... Maybe you should try and look for another potential boyfriend?"

"But Sasuke-kun is the best!" The Yamanaka heiress replied in her old fangirl'ish way, which earned her a light glare from the white-haired kunoichi: Sachiko _disliked_ fangirls. "Fine! But he is still good." Ino said, crossing her arms on her chest. The whitehead in front of her shrugged: for her Naruto was the ideal... The blond girl looked at the clock. Damn! She still needed to pack for her mission! So bidding Sachiko farewell, she continued on her way to her bedroom...

Inoichi, looking rather tired and slightly out of breath – it was like he ran back home from the ANBU headquarters not to make his 'patient' wait for too long – and immediately invited the white-haired kunoichi to his personal study, where their sessions in the past days had been held. And once again the head of the Yamanaka clan was talking with her about what was bothering her... Like she did before, Sachiko tried to avoid talking about her personal life, especially the naughty things she did with her boyfriend, but knowing how good a psychologist the blond mindwalker was, she wouldn't be too surprised if he guessed those...

By the end of their hour long session, Inoichi was satisfied with the psychological state of the white-haired kunoichi and said that for now they wouldn't need to meet more. Sachiko thanked him for the time he spent on her – after all it was him, who allowed her understand what was that she desired with Naruto... Bidding the blond man farewell, the chuunin whitehead left the Yamanaka clan compound and headed back home, doing a stop at the nearest shop for some groceries...

* * *

It the afternoon, the team five had a training of their own, and Iruka-sensei pushed them quite hard today, giving them the task of capturing one of his shadow clones without dispelling it – the scarred jounin did this to see, whether his team could capture an enemy chuunin or jounin without killing him or her. And to make the things even harder, he made only four clones that all acted independently and in different parts of the training grounds, imitating scout ninja...

Naruto and Sachiko, whose arsenal consisted mostly of the powerful techniques, capable of destroying large groups of opponents, 'killed' two clones, before learning what jutsu and how they should use to complete their 'mission'. The third clone was captured by Sai's animated drawings, but 'committed suicide' before it could have been completely immobilized... But the trio was learning from their mistakes, and the fourth clone couldn't escape them.

Iruka was pleasantly surprised by this, as he wasn't sure that his team was ready such tasks... But it still took them quite some time, and they would have to wait till tomorrow morning to get their next mission, so the scarred jounin dismissed his team.

Since the day was still hot and sunny, Sachiko decided that there was no reason her and Naruto to sit home, so she dragged him to the river. Finding a secluded backwater, where they wouldn't be disturbed, the duo bathed there. Naked, as they had nothing to hide from each other... As they were waiting for the evening sun to dry them, the white-haired girl rolled over to her boyfriend and started playing with his cock with her fingers, quickly bringing it to its full mast.

"Mm..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki moaned to her ministration, his eyes still closed. But when felt the weight settle on top of him, moments later followed by Sachiko taking his erection into her mouth, he opened them, finding her crotch next to his face. Raising his head a bit, Naruto sent his tongue snaking into her wet pussy, causing his girlfriend to moan oh so delightfully around his cock... The white-haired kunoichi was sucking his member enthusiastically, loving the combined feeling of his hot dick in her mount and his a bit rough tongue in her core, working her towards her orgasm... Several minutes later, Sachiko came, her juices flowing freely from her sweet pussy, as she moaned around his shaft in pleasure, sending delightful vibrations through it. These pushed the Kyuubi jinchuuriki over the edge, and he erupted into his girlfriend's mouth with the load of his seed. When she couldn't fit more, she let his cock out of her mouth – the rest of his cum ending on her face – and sagged backwards a bit while savoring the taste of her 'prize'... After she swallowed the spunk she had in her mouth, Sachiko cleaned her face with her tongue and fingers, before turning around and laying back down onto her boyfriend's chest, while sending her left hand down to massage his balls and get him ready for another round.

"That was incredible!" The white-haired kunoichi whispered hotly to her lover as she laid her head on his shoulder, as he hugged her closer to himself with one hand... Even though his erection was already back, the whitehead didn't want to ruin this moment of their closeness yet, and, thus, remained as she was for now. ...Finally, Sachiko decided that it was time for the second round and sat up, placing herself in such a way that his dick was pressed between his stomach and her pussy lips. To the white-haired girl it felt like a good alternative to penetration – she didn't feel ready for that yet – and Naruto seemed to enjoy this too. Taking his hands in her own, the whitehead started grinding their sexes together, making them both moan from pleasure...

This time they both lasted a bit longer, even though the amounts of pleasure they felt from the act were greater. Once they came, they cuddled under the evening sun for a bit more, before washing each other clean and, drying themselves with the towels – they were now always having essentials, sealed in the scrolls, with them. And after some more cuddling, though this time with their clothes on, they called it a day and headed back home...

**~/ *** \~**

The next morning the team five started with visiting the Hokage tower to get a mission to do. Despite an early hour, Hokage-sama was already in the Briefing hall, giving missions out to some jounin and an ANBU team... When it was finally their turn, Iruka-sensei said something to the aged village leader, and Sarutobi, who was already stretching his hand towards the C-rank mission scrolls, changed his mind and picked a B-ranked one instead.

"Well... The Tanzaku gai samurai guards are requesting our help to deal with their bandit problem. They suspect that there is either a rogue samurai or a missing-nin among the outlaws as they are too good at evading their patrols." Hokage said as his eyes scanned the contents of the scroll.

"Team five accepts the mission." Iruka said, before accepting the scroll from his superior. The scarred jounin lead his team to the side, so that they wouldn't keep others waiting for their missions, and read the information from the scroll himself. "The mission should last for about three weeks, including the time needed to get to Tanzaku gai and back. And even though it is almost positive that we will have to fight a chakra user, I don't foresee you having any problems there. So, pack for a normal mission. We're meeting at the west gates in an hour."

"Hai!" Naruto, Sachiko and Sai replied simultaneously. Their sensei nodded, acknowledging that they had no questions about the mission right now.

"Dismissed." He said, before **shunshin**'ing away. Sai followed the suit a couple of seconds later, disappearing via his personal 'ink' variation of the jutsu. The remaining two members of the team five shrugged and walked out of the Briefing hall: they were already packed for a mission and since there was nothing special they should have added to their equipment, they were ready to go right away. They headed to the ramen bar Naruto liked so much: they needed something to do for this hour, after all...

**~/ *** \~**

It took team five about six full days and some more to reach Tanzaku gai, and once they were there, Iruka immediately had they go to the samurai guards headquarters to collect any helpful information about the bandits they were to deal with... It appeared that the brigands were attacking merchants that were transporting either durable clothes or equipment that could be used for weapons, like axes, scythes, hammers and the likes, or they attacked the places where they could easily get a lot of cash. It looked like someone was trying to create a small army of the outlaws... Samurai commander also provided them with the map with places, where the attacks had been, marked.

Thanking the samurai guards for their help, the team five headed out of the town and towards the forest where the most of the attacks had happened. Once there, Sai released a large group of animated ink rats and snakes to search for the bandits there. He also wanted to create a bird for himself to look for them from the air, but Iruka said 'no' to him, telling that this could alert brigands that they were here.

Only a couple of hours later, and just about an hour before the sunset, one of Sai's drawings located the bandits' camp. Unfortunately, it ran low on chakra and had to return to its creator with the 'report' before it could investigate the camp thoroughly. Still, from what the rat saw, there was roughly forty outlaws in the camp and at least two of those had katanas like those Fire country samurai were armed with... Most likely those were rogue samurai. Not really good, but not bad either, as samurai were generally on the level of a strong genin or a weak chuunin.

Iruka decided that they would attack the bandits' camp early in the next morning, and right now they were to head back to Tanzaku gai and report their findings to the city guards, before getting some rest... But as they were returning to the city, a small group of five bandits appeared in front of them. Though, as soon as they recognized that these were ninja in front of them, they tried to run away.

"Don't let them get away." Iruka-sensei ordered. "Capture them, or, if you can't, kill." His team nodded and took after them. Thanks to their superior training as shinobi, they quickly caught up with the brigands.

"**Chouju giga!**" At this point Sai didn't even need to stop to animate his beasts, and several large snakes sprang from his scroll, tying two bandits down before they could do anything to escape the 'attack'. At the same time, Naruto and Sachiko almost simultaneously ran through their handseals:

"**Doton: keisei!**" They said together, while making the earth rise and capture two other outlaws into a stone prisons. Their jounin-sensei, though, didn't show off, and knocked the fifth bandit out with just a blunt side of kunai to the back of his head.

After the other four brigands were knocked out, the team five continued on their way back to the Tanzaku gai, with their clones, carrying the captured bandits following closely behind them.

**~/ *** \~**

Early in the next morning, well before the sunrise, the team five crept through the forest towards where Sai's rat located the bandits' camp. Hopefully, those five outlaws they captured yesterday weren't missed yet, and the others weren't expecting an attack right now... As there were only four brigands awake (barely), and none of them was a 'samurai', it appeared that there will be little problem with the attack execution.

"OK, team." Iruka said in a whisper. "We need to capture 'samurai' alive, as the Tanzaku gai samurai guard wanted to deal with them themselves. What you do to the rest, they don't particularly care, so you can not bother with not killing them." His students nodded. "Now, Sai, I want you to sent several snakes to take the guards out."

"I shall do that." The pale boy said, as he opened his scroll and quickly drew eight pretty large serpents. "**Chouju giga!**" The snakes were animated and, leaving the scroll, they slithered into the bandits' camp.

"When the guards are down, I, Naruto and Sachiko will attack." Iruka continued "Sai, I charge you with watching the perimeter of the camp until we deal with everyone inside. Your task will be not to let any bandits that are trying to run away out." The ink user nodded and, summoning four of his ink clones, followed his sensei's order. "Naruto, Sachiko, while we're in the camp, I want you to watch out for the 'samurai': don't let them mix with the other bandits if you are using powerful jutsu – remember, we need them alive."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei." The two lovebirds said simultaneously, before returning to watching the camp guards as they waited for Sai's snakes to take them down... A couple of minutes later, all four were neutralized without being given even a chance to alert the rest of the camp about the attack.

"Go, go, go!" The scarred jounin said, and the operation began... Naruto, tearing through the tents in his 'juggernaut' mode woke up the bandits – those that weren't taken down by the Kyuubi jinchuuriki already – and they tried to regroup to counterattack, only to find the white-haired kunoichi was in their way.

"Sorry, guys, but you are on the wrong side of the law. **Jinton: jinryuukamu!**" A dragon formed from the dust charged at them, easily tearing through their ranks, as the bandits didn't have even a faintest idea of how to defend themselves from this attack...

"**Chikara no tou!**" One of the 'samurai', who joined the fight, yelled, sending a cutting wave of energy from his katana, aiming for Sachiko's head. The whitehead ducked under the attack, but this seemed to be exactly what the man wanted her to do, as he tried to behead her... He didn't expect her to be this good with stilettos, though, as the white-haired chuunin blocked his attack without any great difficulty, even if she had to use wind chakra to enhance her blades for this. The man jumped backwards, reading himself to unleash another ranged attack, but Naruto decided to intervene, and sent a powerful punch to the man's side, sending him onto the ground and knocking his weapon from his hands... Not giving the outlaw any chance to recover, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki knocked him unconscious with another powerful punch, this time aimed to the back of his head.

"Good work, team." Iruka-sensei said loudly, also telling Sai that the attack was over and he could rejoin his teammates. The scarred jounin was carrying two rogue samurai – there were not two, but three of them in the camp – over his shoulders, both knocked out. "Now, lets tie them up, collect their weapons and head back to Tanzaku gai to report that the mission is completed." His three students nodded.

**~/ *** \~**

Feeling generous after the successful B-rank mission, Iruka decided that his team can have a day off, before they head back to Konoha. ...Well, an evening off, as the formalities they had to go through at the samurai guard headquarters took almost entire morning... After they got the rooms for tonight, the team five headed into the city for some lunch.

They chose one of the many bars there, but almost as soon as they entered it, they saw a busty blond woman in green jacket sitting behind one of the tables with a petite brunette with a pet pig on her arms next to her. Iruka led his team to that table.

"Good day, Tsunade-sama." He greeted the blond woman. Tsunade of the sannin looked up at him and returned the greeting with a nod. "Mind if my team will sit with you and your apprentice?" This was asked also because the bar was quite full at the moment and there was only one free table there... The blond sannin looked around, before nodding.

"Shizune, can you move a bit?" She asked. The brunette next to her nodded hastily and made some room for Iruka. Naruto, Sachiko and Sai sat across the table, with the white-haired kunoichi next to the wall and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki between her and Sai.

"Thank you." The scarred jounin said. "Allow me to introduce my team, Tsunade-sama." The blond sannin shrugged, before drinking (yet another) cup of sake. "To your left, there is Sai..." The pale boy nodded. "Next to him is Uzumaki Naruto..."

"Uzumaki, eh?" Tsunade asked. "Kushina's son then. They named you after a character from that pervert's book, you know." Apparently, the blond sannin was a bit drunk and more talkative than normal... Then she looked at the final member of the team five. "And you must be Sachiko, right?" The white-haired kunoichi raised her eyebrow.

"Not that I'm delighted, but I don't think that we're good enough for you to know my name, Tsunade-sama." She said, making the slug princess laugh.

"Girl, even if you were just a civilian, I would still recognize you. I was the one who named you, after all." White-haired kunoichi's surprise turned into a real shock: named by one of the sannin? "You were born on October tenth, when the Kyuubi attacked... I don't know what exactly happened at the hospital that night as I was on the battlefield, but when I got there, the maternal ward was no more, and you were the only survivor. Without anything more than a scratch... You were truly lucky that night, girl. That is why I gave you your name." Indeed, 'Sachiko' meant 'lucky girl'.

"T-thank you, Tsunade-sama." The white-haired chuunin said, not really sure what to reply... A silence settled over the table, as the members of the team five were eating their lunches and the blond sannin was finishing the latest jar of sake she had ordered... Finally Tsunade decided that it was time for her to go waste her life somewhere else – it was quite a known fact that did little more than gamble and drink in the past years.

"Alright, kids,.." She said, sounding to be in a relatively rare good mood of hers, when dealing with those from the Hidden Leaf. "Grow strong and powerful and make your village proud."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama!" Naruto and Sachiko replied. Sai did too, just not as loudly. The slug princess then started walking away with Shizune following closely behind her, but when she was a couple of meters away from the table occupied by the team five, she stopped and turned around, looking at the white-haired kunoichi.

"And, Sachiko-chan, keep your boyfriend close. You don't want something happening to him like it happened to mine." She added, sounding sad in the end. Both Naruto and Sachiko blushed at being 'caught', but the whitehead thanked the blond sannin anyway... After that Tsunade and her apprentice disappeared into the busy streets of midday Tanzaku gai...

Some time later, when the team five finished their meals, Iruka set the rules for them for their free time in the city, before letting them go and do whatever they wanted. He himself remained at the bar and, ordering himself some more sake, got to thinking about his own life...

* * *

That's all, folks!  
**Read** and **Review**!


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